Morotai Open to Wide Investment Opportunities

The  Indonesian government plans to transform Morotai Island into a special economic zone housing an international harbor and an airport, with the aim of creating a regional transport center. The governor of North Maluku, Thaib Armaiyn, has urged all sectors to support the government’s plan by inviting more investments to Morotai.
Morotai is located in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesia’s Maluku Islands. Most of the island’s interior is rugged and covered in thick jungle. With abundant fishery resources and a well-preserved coral reef ecology, the island is regarded as a good place to develop the logistics and tourism businesses.
Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Syarief Sutardjo has designated Morotai as a model of maritime development that will help to accelerate economic area development bases on marine and fisheries. The Morotai island water is vast, consisting of 160 different fish species of significant economic value that allows 31 business sectors to thrive and produce 148,473.8 tons of fish per year.
The development of Morotai has the full support of the central government and the private sector, one of which is Jababeka, the company that owns and manages Southeast Asia’s largest industrial estate in Cikarang, south of Jakarta. According to the governor, the support from Jababeka provides the initial momentum that saw capital from western Indonesia to enter Morotai.
Thaib said, “Jababeka built cottages and infrastructure facilities so investors from Taiwan were able to survey Morotai.” Indonesia and Taiwan will jointly outline and implement blueprints to develop Morotai’s forest resources, fish farming and eco-tourism.
Meanwhile, Thaib ensures that the local government will support all investors that come to Morotai. With the support of the central government, they plan to build better roads, electrical facilities, and harbors and also set up logistics services, airports and other means to attract investors. Also, he added, regulations will be made to make investors convenient to do business there.
“We open wide opportunities for investment, so existing regulations are possible to be revised in line with the latest developments,” he stated.
The local government is also enhancing human resources quality by establishing vocational schools especially in marine, agriculture, and mining. Thaib admitted that they currently have mostly hard labor workers. The government still needs to produce more people with administrative skills to work in companies, he said.
Morotai is also known as being part of world history because it was once the battleground between Japan and the United States and Australia (Allied forces) during World War II. In 1943-1944, approximately 200,000 allied troops landed on Morotai.
Now, the remains of World War II at Morotai can still be seen; they are located either on land or deeply immersed in the ocean. The number of relics is almost impossible to determine, and the Morotai government intends to revive memories of World War II through historical tourism.
The acceleration of Morotai development coincides with the success of “Sail Morotai 2012”, a maritime event that saw hundreds of yachts from many countries take part.

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