Indonesia is now experiencing a digital revolution in its maritime domain. Digital transformation is one of the change management strategies of Indonesia to align people, processes and technology as enablers of the country to align with its mission, vision, and strategy.
The Blue Economy-Based Maritime Spatial Design of Indonesia must be harmonised with the availability of other supporting infrastructure and the internet has become a prerequisite in the 4.0 era to increase its competitiveness in the global digital economy.
We value Blue Economy as one of the main references to make our ocean sustainable and for the sake of greatest prosperity of the people.
– Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, Minister, Marine Affairs and Fisheries
The ocean space provides various benefits in several human endeavours in Indonesia, thus the regional and central Marine Spatial Planning that is based on the Blue Economy principle is required for the country to improve its investment climate and sustainably provide economic certainty to its maritime domain.
Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, Minister, Marine Affairs and Fisheries revealed that the Maritime Ministry is preparing an integrated satellite-based technology programme system which will be used as the main fishing operation surveillance system to provide accurate data on the various needs of anglers at sea, but that these innovative solutions can be used not only for surveillance but for other purposes as well.
“Several platforms have been able to meet the digitalisation needs of the marine and fisheries sector. This innovative solution can be used for sensing, understanding, and acting,” the Maritime Minister Trenggono added.
The management of Indonesia’s maritime territory is undergoing a digital revolution. He enumerated the main pillars of the Blue Economy that had been developed as a strategy to pursue those commitments and agendas. These are ecological health, economic growth and social inclusion. Those main pillars provide a legitimate basis for safeguarding the health and resilience of the ocean attracting investment and providing jobs.
Indonesia’s Blue Economy guides and supports a market-based mechanism where fisheries products should be sourced from sustainable practices. From this, three main programs have been introduced namely quota-based fishing policy, export aquaculture oriented and aquaculture for community development.
Alongside the fisheries policy transformation, Indonesia is currently applying a comprehensive Marine Spatial Planning that would be aligned and managed multiple stakeholders and sectors’ interests that can be very divergent in the environment, social and economic perspectives.
All activities must comply with marine space allocation carrying capacity and impacts mitigation this means that Marine Spatial Planning serves as a supreme reference for economic development and environment conservation interest.
Several ministries in Indonesia had prepared various platforms that could meet the digitalisation needs in the marine and fisheries sectors to support the three main programmes. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia acknowledged the Smart City and Community Innovation Center (SCCIC) Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) for its plan of developing a living lab.
Collective actions and knowledge in digital transformations are critical to strengthening global efforts that will enable Indonesia to measure its progress in the sustainable development of its maritime territory, hence, reducing the digital gap between the blue and green economy is Indonesia’s initial step toward a better economy.
He was optimistic that the transformation of Indonesia’s fisheries will take off this year. With better regulated and sustainable fisheries, the country will have a healthy ocean, economic growth, and equal distribution across the nation.
