Please click to watch video of Indonesia Island Affirmation Meeting

 

On March 31, 2022, the Technical Team for the Topographical Name of the Marine Area from the Center for Mapping of the Marine and Coastal Environment, the Geospatial Information Agency (PPKLP-BIG) attended a meeting on the Confirmation of Island Status held by the Directorate General of Regional Administration Development, Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. The Head of the Regional Boundary Mapping Center, BIG, Astrit Rimayanti, ST., M.Sc, said that the affirmation of the allocation of the island's administrative area to the village/kelurahan administration area is very important. The unclear administrative area on an island will have an impact on the calculation of the area which is one of the components of calculating the General Allocation Fund. Government Regulation No. 2 of 2021 states that information on topographical elements consists of topographical names, types of topographical elements, coordinates, meaning of names, other names, origin of language, history of names, and pronunciation, so that the administrative area does not constitute topographical element information covered by the gazeter. It is suggested to conduct further discussion regarding the administrative area. At the meeting, Astrit also explained that there are still several disputed islands that do not yet have a coastline. This needs to be followed up by PPKLP, BIG.

 

Regarding the allocation of administrative areas, the Director of Toponyms and Regional Boundaries, Ministry of Home Affairs, Sugiarto, SE., M.Si stated that the Ministry of Home Affairs has made Minister of Home Affairs Decree No. 050-145 of 2022 and Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs No. 58 of 2021 regarding government administration area data code. In the Ministry of Home Affairs, there are 16,772 islands that have been registered and have codes. Meanwhile, in the Gazeter of the Republic of Indonesia in 2021, there are 17,000 islands whose names have been standardized. Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs will register islands whose names have been standardized in the Gazeter of the Republic of Indonesia but have not been registered and do not yet have a code in Kepmdagri No 050-145 of 2022.

 

During the meeting, the technical team from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries also conveyed that there were several topographical elements that indicated islands but had not been standardized in the Indonesian Gazeter 2021. Responding to this, the technical team from PPKLP, BIG explained that local governments, ministries and institutions may collect topographical names of marine areas including islands to be submitted in the standardization of topographical names. All island data submitted will be analyzed both from the spatial rules and from the toponym rules. The BIG PPKLP technical team also conveyed that in the review, it would be technically reviewed whether the element was an island or not, one of which was by looking at the bathymetry data in the area.

 

In closing the meeting, Sugiarto appealed to all local governments, ministries/agencies to use the administrative area data in Kepmdagri No 050-145 of 2022 for information on island administration areas, including those in the Gazeter of the Republic of Indonesia. This is so that Indonesia has the same complete island information and does not cause conflict. (Dyah)