Agreement Reached For Ferry To Serve Bitung-davao Route

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Oct 22 (Antaranews Kalsel) - A roll-off roll-on vessel will soon begin serving passengers traveling to and from Bitung in the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi and Davao-General Santos in the Philippines.

The planned operation of the ferry, which could also transport goods, is one of the results of the meeting of transport ministers from four countries grouped in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines East ASEAN Growth Triangle (BIMP-EAGA) here on Tuesday.

The eighth meeting of the ministers from the four countries had voiced their commitment to providing facilities and simpler means to increase connectivity through air, land and sea transportation.

The agreement was jointly presented by EE Mangindaan, the transport minister of Indonesia; Abdullah Bakar, the transport minister of Brunei Darussalam; Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, deputy transport minister of Malaysia; and Jose Perpetuo M Lotilla of the Philippines.

"A lot of transportation infrastructure development has been completed during the building of relations between the four countries, including the planned operation of a Roro vessel to connect Bitung and Davao," Mangindaan said.

They have also agreed to establishing a ferry service between Muara and Labuan.

With regard to land transportation, a contract is now being drafted for the development of roads between Pontianak in West Kalimantan and Tayan in Malaysia and Sosok-Tayan-Entikong in Malaysia and Tanjung Selor-Simanggaris.

"In December, the road development project between Pontianak and Entikong in Malaysia will be launched, and others will follow," Mangindaan said.

BIMP-EAGA was first launched in 1994 as a cooperation initiative between Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, all of whom are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

It is aimed at accelerating economic development in areas in the four countries which are geographically located far from capital cities.

In this year�s meeting, the ministers focused on discussing agreements to increase connectivity among the BIMP-EAGA countries.

  "The main agenda item of the 8th BIMP-EAGA Transport Ministers Meeting is comprehensively developing ASEAN connectivity for the economic development of the region," he said.