President Proposed to be Named "Father of Indonesian Maritim"

Jakarta (Antara Bali)- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has been proposed to be named the "Father of Indonesian Maritime" for his focused attention to the country's maritime sector.

"We plan to give recognition to the president as 'the Father of Indonesian Maritime,'" Director of the state-run Indonesian Maritime Polytechnic (Polimarin) Sri Tutie Rahayu stated here, Monday.

The honor will be bestowed on September 29 to coincide with the commemoration of World Maritime Day.

World Maritime Day for 2016 is themed "Shipping: indispensable to the world," and its Parallel Event will be held in Turkey in November 2016.

"For Indonesia, we hope the function will be centered in Semarang, particularly with the support of the research, technology and higher education ministry and the Indonesian Navy," she emphasized.

President Jokowi has tasked the polytechnic with guarding "Nawa Cita," or the nine-priority agenda, particularly the first agenda to make Indonesia a maritime axis, and the fifth being to improve the quality of maritime education and to boost the productivity of maritime human resources.

"We are ready to support the maritime axis vision and Nawa Cita as echoed by President Jokowi," she stated.

Jokowi called on Rahayu to assign her the task of strengthening the country's maritime human resources.

"We are authorized to issue 11 certificates on maritime education of international standard and are recognized as a world-class maritime institute," she noted.

Since its initiation four years ago, Polimarin has established cooperation with a German university to start a double degree program.

The polytechnic is also assigned to set up a D4 (non-degree) program on Nautical education.

Moreover, Polimarin has forged cooperation with partners in Sweden, South Korea, New Zealand, and the Indonesian Navy in character building; with the customs and excise directorate in basic safety training; as well as with private maritime companies.

It plans to build a campus on a 100-hectare plot of land located in a coastal area, so its students could practice by using the latest version of sophisticated simulator from Germany, she noted.

Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir remarked that the government had planned to establish 10 vocational education institutes or polytechnics in the maritime, electronic material, ship building, food, and manufacturing fields, among other things.

According to Nasir, the 10 polytechnics will become pilot projects that will churn out certified graduates that could be absorbed by markets.

"The quality of our manpower must be improved," he added. (WDY)