Maritime Highway’s Ineffectiveness Affects Interconnectivity

The maritime highway should instead prioritize a supply chain paradigm between production, consumption and raw material provider regions.

KOMPAS/LASTI KURNIA

Inter-island ships arrive and dock on Sunday (8/3/2020) at the Tanjung Priok container terminal in Jakarta.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The government’s commitment to reducing interregional price disparities for staple needs is reflected in its program to ensure interconnectivity of sea, air and land transportation modes. However, achieving these goals will be difficult if the maritime highway initiative, the backbone of this interconnectivity, is not effective.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) researcher in industrial, trade and investment affairs, Ahmad Heri Firdaus, said in Jakarta on Monday that the maritime highway initiative lacked efficiency. Among the indicators is that regions with ports that are passed by the maritime highway have higher inflation rates than the national average.