Indonesia forms border agency to manage boundary area issues

Indonesia's National Agency for Border Management (BNPP), set up recently, will have several functions in managing boundary area issues, an official said here on Friday.

Soetrisno, director general of general governance at the Domestic Affairs Ministry, said that all these years, border issues have been handled by 27 ministries.

"However, they do not provide a significant outcome as they are lack of coordination. Therefore, BNPP will take over the job," he said.

"In the future, BNPP will coordinate and decide programs and budget so that there will be no overlapping of function," he said.

He also said that the agency will coordinate practice in field, including evaluation on border area issues.

Soetrisno said that Indonesia has many border problems both in land and sea as the country has a very long boundary area with its neighboring countries.

"For example, we have land borders with Malaysia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Timor-Leste" he said.

Soetrisno added that with Malaysia, Indonesia has a land border of 2,004 kilometers, 760 kilometers with PNG and 63 kilometers with Timor-Leste. Meanwhile, he said that Indonesia has sea border with 10 countries, meaning that the country needs to improve border management.

Source: Xinhua