April 13, 2021
The Jakarta Post
JKPOST
6
(c) 2021 The Jakarta Post
Phar Kim Beng, Kuala Lumpur
Indonesia is a maritime super power. It is time to acknowledge it beyond the notion of Indonesia as a “global maritime fulcrum”. To begin, Indonesia is sixth in terms of the size and scale of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Ahead of Indonesia are, respectively, France, the United States, Australia, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Regardless of who will be the top dog in the post COVID-19 world order, be it the US or Group of Seven, or, perhaps China in combination with Russia, Indonesia’s EEZ’s numerical superiority and advantages will forever remain unchallenged.
The key is to understand deep-sea drilling as the EEZ extends out to 200 nautical kilometers; create a strictly well managed Indonesian sovereign wealth fund that can protect the revenues drawn from the EEZ, which Indonesia seems to be doing with the help of Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) and International Private Investment Cooperation (IPIC); the latter a private arm of the US State Department.
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Phar Kim Beng founder/CEO of Strategic Pan Indo-Pacific Arena (Strategicpipa.com)
