REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Indonesia and France collaborate in fighting fish theft or the term known as Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. The program is implemented by developing the oceanographic infrastructure which protects and monitors Indonesian sea.

"The Infrastructure Development for Space Oceanography (INDESO) project is expected to contribute in fighting IUU Fishing which recently undermine Indonesian economy," the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, said after signing the project between Indonesia and France on Monday.

INDESO project is also considered as having strategic value for the marine and fisheries development in Indonesia. The infrastructure facility will be connected with satellite and provided with Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) which allows global monitoring on spatial and temporal scale. Such equipment could monitor the illegal fishing, the minister added.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Fishing in the Ministry would give the VMS to licensed ships, the Director General of Marine Resources and Fisheries in the Ministry, Syahrin Abdurrahman, said. The French Ambassador to Indonesia, Bertrand Lortholary, said the cooperation between Indonesian and France through the project was a historical milestone for both countries.

Implemented in 2012, INDESO project will run in four years. The project gets 31.2 million USD from French Development Agency (AFD) in the form of soft loan and grant of 30 million USD and from Indonesian government in the amount of 1.5 million USD.

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