On October 2, 2023, the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (the “MOMF”) issued Regulation No. 31 of 2023 on Partnerships within the Marine and Fisheries Business Sector (“Regulation 31”). Regulation 31 is issued as a follow up to Presidential Regulation (“PR”) No. 10 of 2021 dated February 2, 2021 on Investment Business Fields as amended by PR No. 49 of 2021 dated May 25, 2021 (“PR 10/2021”) which requires several business activities under the marine and fisheries sector to have a partnership with cooperatives and micro, small, and medium enterprises (collectively, the “SMEs”) to be able to conduct its business activities.

Regulation 31 provides detailed provision on the implementation of partnership for businesses with cooperatives and SMEs, such as the types, schemes, procedures, requirements, and evaluation of the partnerships within the marine and fisheries sector.

We set out below certain key points of Regulation 31.

General Overview of Partnership and Types of Partnership

A partnership under Regulation 31 is defined as cooperation in a business relationship either directly or indirectly, on the basis of mutual needs, trust, reinforcement, and benefits, involving SMEs up to large-scale businesses (the “Partnership”).

In line with PR 10/2021, Regulation 31 provides that the Partnership shall be conducted for several business activities under the marine and fisheries sectors, namely the business of fish hatchery, fish rearing, salt production/extraction, fish canning, processing of fisheries products, as well as marketing, distribution, wholesale, and export of fisheries products (all of these business activities are collectively the “Business Activities”).1

In this regard, the Partnership shall be conducted by and between:2

  1. a large scale business with the micro, small, and/or medium business;
  2. a medium scale business with the micro and/or small scale business;
  3. a large scale business with a cooperative; or
  4. a medium scale business with a cooperative.

For this purpose, the definition of large, medium, small and micro businesses as well as cooperatives shall be the businesses with the criteria as set out under the prevailing laws and regulations on SMEs and cooperatives respectively.

Regulation 31 provides that the Partnership may be conducted within the stage of (i) pre-production, (ii) production, (iii) post-production, (iv) processing, and/or (v) marketing.3

Further to the above, Regulation 31 provides that the Partnership is conducted through a transfer of skill within the field of production and processing, marketing, capitalization, human resources, and technology based on the respective Partnership schemes that we will discuss later in this Newsflash.4

The transfer of skill as intended in Regulation 31 explained above may be conducted through several means, such as training, skill development, internship, and supervision.5

Partnership Schemes

The Partnership schemes under Regulation 31 are as follows:6

  1. core-plasma;
  2. subcontract;
  3. franchise;
  4. trade;
  5. distribution;
  6. supply chain; and
  7. other types of partnership.

Other types of partnership as stipulated in letter g above may be in the form of profit sharing, operational cooperation, joint venture, and outsourcing.7

Further, certain Partnerships may only be conducted for some of the Business Activities as provided under Regulation 31. For instance, the Partnership through the Subcontract scheme may only be for the Business Activity of salt production/extraction, processing of fisheries products specifically for fish fermentation and other cooked products as well as crushed meat and surimi industries, and fish canning.

Requirements of Partnerships

In order to be able to conduct and partake in the Partnership, the large scale business, SMEs, and cooperatives must fulfill several requirement as set out under Regulation 31, as follows:8

  1. a large scale business (i.e., domestic and foreign investment companies) and medium scale business:

    1. partnership commitment as evidenced with a letter of commitment;
    2. technology and management with national and/or international standards as evidenced by certifications;
    3. a partnership plan;
    4. business licenses; and
    5. statement letters of not under court supervision and/or under any legal dispute.

  2. Cooperatives and/or SMEs:

    1. a partnership commitment as evidenced with a letter of commitment;
    2. business licenses;
    3. financial reports;
    4. a statement letter of having basic equipment for business;
    5. a valid place of business;
    6. a fegal entity for cooperatives; and
    7. a statement letter of not under court supervision and/or under any legal dispute.

Procedures of Partnerships

The Partnership shall be conducted through 3 (three) procedures, namely (i) identification, (ii) verification, and (iii) facilitation.9

Identification10

Identification shall be conducted through 2 (two) means, namely (i) mapping, and (ii) application.

Mapping is conducted by the MOMF or relevant Maritime and Fisheries Department Office (the “Department”) through data collection of cooperatives, SMEs, and/or large scale businesses that have the potential to be given the Partnership facilitation. From such mapping of the potential businesses, the MOMF will grant the businesses with the Partnership facility.

Verification11

Other than the above, the facilitation of the Partnership may be given through an application by the businesses in the event such businesses are not included within the mapping by the MOMF and the Department as explained above.

The applications submitted by the businesses shall be verified by the MOMF or the Department by examining the completion of requirements as explained in the prior paragraph. If the requirements have been met, the MOMF or the Department may conduct a site visit within 7 (seven) days since the MOMF or the Department deemed the required documents have completed.

Once the documentation and site visit verification have been completed, the MOMF shall grant the businesses with the Partnership facilitation.

Facilitation12

Facilitation shall be in the form of business meetings and assistance.

Business meetings shall be conducted by meeting the large scale business with a cooperative and SMEs, or Medium businesses with cooperatives and SMEs. While assistance shall be in the form of at least, financing access, technical assistance for business, business management, institutional enforcement, basic feasibility of processing, enforcement of market access, and/or drafting of a Partnership agreement.

Partnership Agreements

Cooperatives, SMEs, and/or large scale businesses that have been given the Partnership facility shall draft a Partnership Agreement to be able to conduct such Partnership.13 This Partnership Agreement shall be made in Indonesian or in dual language if the large scale business within the Partnership is a foreign investment company.

The Partnership Agreement shall include at least the following: (i) identities of the parties, (ii) business activities, (iii) right and obligations of the parties, (iv) types of enforcement, (v) period of the Partnership, (vi) the period and mechanism of payment, and (vii) the dispute settlement.14

This Partnership Agreement shall be used as the tool by the MOMF and the Department to supervise the implementation of the Partnership.15

Footnotes

1. Article 3(1) of Regulation 31

2. Article 4(1) of Regulation 31

3. Article 4(3) of Regulation 31

4. Article 5(1) of Regulation 31

5. Article 5(2) of Regulation 31

6. Article 6(1) of Regulation 31

7. Article 6(2) of Regulation 31

8. Article 20(1) of Regulation 31

9. Article 20(2) of Regulation 31

10. Article 22(1) of Regulation 31

11. Article 23(1) and (2) of Regulation 31

12. Article 24 of Regulation 31

13. Article 25 of Regulation 31

14. Article 26(3) of Regulation 31

15. Article 28(4) of Regulation 31

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.