Previous reports had brought up problems with farm land and gas utility pipelines relocation as potential issues.
Industry Ministry industrial zone development director general Imam Haryono said that the Metropolitan Priority Area (MPA) project, which is also part of the country's Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) programs, was quoted as saying that hundreds of hectares of rice paddy field would likely disappear if the Cilamaya Port project continued.
In addition, state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina might have to relocate its offshore plant in West Java if the Cilamaya Port was set up. This would affect oil supply to state utilities firm PLN's electricity plants which would decrease supplies of electricity to the capital city and the greater Jakarta area.
He said that the government was committed to finding a solution so as to ensure that no party would be put at a disadvantage by the project's cancellation. "We all need to sit down together and find a win-win solution. We have to think about it from a lot of different aspects. We are thinking about the alternatives," he said.
The writing was on the wall as the presidential elections and change of government came around this year when Coordinating Economic Minister Chairul Tanjung said that the project had to be postponed until the next Cabinet was formed. "As far as I know, Pak Jokowi wants to construct a new port somewhere else. Thus, we need to postpone the [Cilamaya Port] development," Chairul said.
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