VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The 2023 Archipelagic and Island States (AIS) Forum Summit is a momentum for the Jakarta provincial government to gain knowledge and experience in collecting integrated and concrete data on the region's marine potential.

"The government must have complete data on the sea because we are lacking in it (data), that we do not know what we want to sell to investors," a legislator from the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD) Ismail told ANTARA here on Thursday.

The AIS Forum Summit will be held on October 10–11 in Bali, with the theme "Fostering Collaboration, Enabling Innovation for Our Ocean and Our Future."

The forum will focus on three aspects: blue economy development, climate change, and strengthening solidarity between archipelagic and island states.

He said that Indonesia, as the largest archipelagic country, which has more than 17,500 islands, a coastline spanning 108 thousand kilometers, and three-quarters of whose territory is covered by sea or water bodies, can benefit from the AIS Summit.

Jakarta has great marine potential, but it has not been explored further, he noted. Therefore, the regional administration is expected to learn a lot, especially about data collection, from other countries participating in the AIS Summit.

According to him, Jakarta can follow the example of European Union countries, which started to implement a blue growth strategy or a long-term strategy of sustainable economic growth in 2012.

The strategy covers five focus areas for the blue economy, namely, aquaculture, maritime tourism, coastal area development and cruise ships, marine mineral resources, and blue biotechnology.

To attract investors, Ismail said, Jakarta must have a complete, integrated, green, and sustainable concept of marine development to attract investors.

Jakarta also needs to prepare a regulation to ensure a conducive investment, especially in the marine sector, he added. (Antaranews)