The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has employed digital technology innovation in order to supervise marine and fishery resources, to allow transparency of fishing data and to achieve bureaucratic reform.
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.
Source: OpenGov
