After four years of construction, Kijing International Port, the largest container terminal on Indonesia’s Kalimantan island in the Borneo region, was inaugurated on 9 August, attended by President Joko Widodo.
Operated by Pelindo II (also known as Indonesia Port Corporation), Kijing, in the Mempawah district of Pontianak port, can handle around 1.95 million TEU annually and cost around US$195 million to build. President Widodo said that the terminal will facilitate the transportation of major commodities such as crude palm oil, bauxite and alumina in domestic and foreign markets.
The terminal, located on the coast of the Karimata Strait with direct sea routes to Sumatra, Singapore, and Malaysia, will increase Pontianak’s container handling capacity from the previous 500,000 TEU.
“We need to make sure that such a big investment will help strengthen our competitiveness and improve inter-port, inter-island, and international connectivity,” the president said.
Widodo also instructed Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono to upgrade roads around the port to allow smooth traffic of large cargo trucks and containers.
“All roads heading to Pontianak Port must be widened and coincidently the minister is present here so I ask him to settle this,” he added.
Kijing will be integrated into the special economic zone to be developed in the area, as part of the effort to create a new growth center in the province.
Minister of State-owned Enterprises Erick Thohir said Kijing help consolidate the country’s port ecosystem and logistics service industry, while helping the development of the processing industry.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
