Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki said Indonesian fisheries are like a sleeping giant.
This is because investors who are interested in the marine sector have only reached four percent, even though the opportunity to develop the marine sector in Indonesia is still wide.
“Maritime scholars are required to take on more roles, primarily to create jobs for the middle class in the marine and fisheries sector, which can create wider employment opportunities, produce technological innovations that create value-added products, and are adaptive to change,” he said at the inauguration of the Regional Management Board. The Association of Indonesian Marine Scholars (Iskindo) of North Sulawesi for the period 2022-2027 in Bitung, North Sulawesi, through an official statement, Jakarta, Saturday.
Furthermore, it is stated that marine scholars must be able to optimize fisheries and marine resources and contribute significantly to the evolution of entrepreneurship in the country.
According to the Coordinating Minister, Indonesia has extraordinary marine resources and has become a domestic flagship.
“If Norway has salmon, we have many other commodities such as tuna, vaname shrimp, seaweed, and others. Therefore, it is important for scholars to develop aquaculture research in the marine sector, so that with this research we can control the resources. our sea,” he said.
Indonesia can emulate countries such as Australia or South Korea because they have universities that play a role in the evolution of micro or informal enterprises to businesses based on science technology innovation.
The role of universities through programs such as Real Work Lectures (KKN) is considered to be very helpful for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the implementation of modern technology, including digital onboarding. Starting from online registration and sales, product marketing, to how to use QR codes as payment.
In fact, it is time for universities and the government to build a special platform to bring together similar business actors to share ideas, product innovation, and training to increase business scale. Such a program in a number of places has proven to be able to increase sales by up to 61.5 percent.
“So scholars must encourage the evolution of entrepreneurship, we must start developing products that can compete. Iskido scholars must have the desire to prosper this country based on the marine sector,” said Teten.
In the same place, the Special Staff of the Coordinating Minister for Cooperatives and General Chairperson of Iskindo Riza Damanik said that Iskido has produced 35 thousand marine scholars throughout Indonesia from more than 60 universities.
“The Regional Board of the Indonesian Maritime Scholars Association (Iskindo) North Sulawesi for the 2022-2027 period can promote fishermen and cooperatives. In Indonesia, there should be cooperatives that are worldwide in the fisheries sector, we hope that Iskindo North Sulawesi has a strategic role,” said Riza. (mhn/bbs)
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