“This is part of the South-South cooperation with African countries as part of the capacity-building scheme,” Sigit Witjaksono, a foreign ministrys official for African and Middle East Affairs, stated in Bali on Monday.
The training themed “International Workshop on Sustainable Marine Fishery Product Development for African Countries” is being held in Banyuwangi and Bali on May 21-31, 2016. It is being attended by 19 participants comprising 12 from the six African countries and seven from host Indonesia.
The participants are entrepreneurs, technical personnel, and information officials engaged in the fishery sector.
Sigit affirmed that the cooperation would provide positive opportunities for the implementation of cooperation in other areas such as export, import, and fishing equipment.
“We hope this training will lead to the implementation of cooperation in other sectors. It is not impossible to realize what is envisioned by a participant from Zimbabwe who is interested in fish trap equipment. They (the Zimbabwean participants) are enthusiastic to study and increase their capacity in the fishing sector in their country,” the foreign ministrys official emphasized.
It is hoped that the training will help the participants plan and produce fish-catching traps and implement fish processing schemes.
“We encourage them to increase their fish catch when they return home,” he stated.
The workshop is being organized in cooperation with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.
For the African region, Indonesia has rolled out 85 assistance programs with more than 500 participants in the fisheries, agriculture, and health sectors and also to promote good governance and small- and medium-scale development.
The Indonesian assistance programs, so far, are in the form of organizing trainings or workshops, providing agricultural equipment, and sending agricultural experts, among others, through the Indonesian Agricultural Centers in Gambia and Tanzania.
Sigit noted that since 1999, Indonesia had implemented more than 460 capacity building programs for over 5.4 thousand participants from Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and Middle East.