Indonesia is on the right track to become a key player in the international maritime industry during the tenure of the leadership of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), according to local media quoting IMO secretary-general Lim Ki-tack.

"Your president knows exactly what you should do, and what areas need to improve. He did a good presentation in IMO. He knows about it,"said Lim.

President Jokowi on several occasions expressed his desire to make Indonesia as the primary hub for the global maritime transport. The President intends to start this process by building a world-class port accross the achipelago to improve the competitiveness of the country and decrease the logistic complexity.

The Indonesian president visited IMO Maritime Environment Protection Committee in London at the invitation of Lim last month, as part of secretary general initiative to improve the awareness of IMO.

"I am very confident that you will achieve the target (within Jokowi’s tenure)," Lim said. "If you look at your neighboring countries, you will see a lot of success stories. You have great potential for a prosperous maritime industry. "

But Lim said Indonesia needs to pay more attention to the financial sustainability and invest more on improving the skills of workers in the maritime industry rather than just focus on building the port.

"I have some doubts on how much human resources you have to develop international shipping, ship technical management, and also on how to develop the port infrastructure, port design, and how to take care of the logistics. These are not easy,” he said

Lim suggested that Indonesia needs to engage in more strategic bilateral partnerships with other countries that have more expertise in the maritime industry. **

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