An announcement
made by the Ministry of Communications and
Informatics (KOMINFO) highlighted the how the Ministry
of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has achieved optimal performance
after it has implemented the digitalisation of data and made use of innovative
technology.
Digitalisation of data is considered very
important because of these reasons: it is one of the national economic drivers,
and it encourages the achievement of optimal government performance. This
includes the performance of the KKP.
Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries
Susi Pudjiastuti has employed digital technology innovation for the supervision
of marine and fishery resources, for the transparency of fishing data, and for
bureaucratic reform.
The effort that Minister Susi had put into
implementing digitalisation was appreciated by various parties and was even
recognised with a Digital Innovation Award for Public Policy from Katadata.co.id.
Minister Susi’s proactive and progressive
attitude towards digitalisation can be witnessed through her efforts in
protecting the Indonesian sea by optimising the technology platform of Global
Fishing Watch (GFW). It was the first time a nation has publicly shared its government-owned Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data.
Minister Susi has also called on all other nations to follow her lead. Working in collaboration with Oceana to increase transparency in the global fishing fleet, Peru became the first nation to take up the call by pledging to share their VMS data with GFW. GFW is a collaborative technology platform between Google, Oceana and SkyTruth.
With this technology, KKP is able to detect
illegal fishing activities. Doing so have increased fish stocks and have shown
growth in fishery GDP as well as contributed to national economic growth.
Minister Susi said that she encountered
problems with monitoring the fishing boats at the beginning of her term as Minister.
She shared this when she spoke during the Katadata Forum in Jakarta earlier this month.
She shared, “Actually, before my work in
the Ministry, I came from the world of aviation wherein the location of the
planes can be monitored. So when I became Minister, I am surprised with the
number of ships. How do I monitor these ships? We have the Vessel Monitoring
System (VMS) but that only monitors Indonesian ships but how about the others?”
Minister Susi explained that since then, her
interest in working with various parties to develop digital technology grew. Minister Susi said that the KKP is being
challenged by the diversity of illegal fishing being done and monitoring of
such was greatly improved by GFW.
She expects that with the digitalisation of
data, the government will have a sense of responsibility with the Indonesian
people to maintain and protect the sovereignty of Indonesian waters. Moreover,
she hopes that the community will also keep watch and become active
participants in protecting the ocean.
Using these digital innovations had made
problem-solving easier especially with issues concerning strategic policies
within the scope of the KKP. Digitalisation of data did not only the eradicate illegal
fishing, but it also encouraged transparency of data regarding the origins of
fishery products
Minister Susi explained, "Nowadays, we
do not have any secrets. I want all the KKP data to be available and
transparent. This will help in facilitating the fishery businesses.”
Furthermore, Minister Susi said that the
only way to reform bureaucracy and to speed it up is by converting data to
digital. “It is not enough to leave data as is. Digitalisation of data would
make it available for everyone online,” she concluded.
