The 30th ASEAN Summit, which includes the sub-regional meetings of Brunei Darussalam Indonesia Malaysia, Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) aims to enhance transport connectivity, generate more private investments, enhance trade, and increase local government engagement.
Under this initiative, a Roll-on Roll-Off (RoRo) ferry service will start plying the Davao City-General Santos-Bitung, Indonesia route on April 30, 2017, will provide a faster and cheaper channel of trading goods among EAGA’s key cities.
“This is the first Roro connectivity in ASEAN. We expect this to set the tone of a much increased trade movement and movement of commodities,” Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) Assistant Secretary Romeo Montenegro announced.
It will cut sailing time from the usual Manila to Jakarta to Bitung route that takes 3-5 weeks to one-and-a-half day through the Davao-GenSan-Bitung route (excluding port stay).
A savings up to $1,500 (P74,0000) per Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) is estimated using this route given its $700 (P34,713) per TEU rate per 20 feet dry container as compared to using the Davao-General Santos to Manila to Manado via Jakarta route which amounts to $2,200 (109,098) per TEU.
Secretary Datu Abul Khayr Alonto, chairman of the MinDa said that the route is extremely beneficial due to the substantial cost savings it offers, resulting to improved competitiveness for our Mindanao products which have been gaining interest within the sub-region, while adding “the route will provide a more efficient access for local businessmen to engage trading with Indonesian counterparts.”
Among the goods identified by the private sector in Mindanao at this stage that will be shipped to Indonesia are: animal feeds, fertilizer, construction materials, ice cream products, poultry (halal), fresh fruits, and synthetics.
Initial list of import goods on the other hand include matured coconut, copra, corn, feed ingredients, lumber, cement, high value crops, vegetables, meat, peanuts, aqua products, charcoal, soya, coffee beans, and sugar.
The M/V Super Shuttle Roro 12 will provide a weekly shipping service to the route with a vessel capacity of 500 TEUs. It is operated by the Asian Marine Transport Corporation.
Caesar Vallejos