Nine years ago, early 2017, I wrote Aceh, Look Ahead!!!. At that time, Aceh had just passed the election period which consumed a lot of public energy, and I invited us to stop for a moment to look at the neighboring areas that were actually stepping on the gas. Now, I write the continuation. Not because the problem is solved, but because most of the old records are still relevant today. I want the public to know, and the younger generation to understand that this kind of input has been voiced, so that later when it is their turn to sit in the decision-making chair, there is a record that can be continued or corrected.
From the experience of managing BUMD which includes local assets, ranging from property and investment to the energy sector, one question I keep bringing home every time the evaluation meeting is over: why do we build so much, but sell so little? We plant rice, then forget to grind it into a national brand. We have world-class coffee, but still happy to be a supplier of “green beans”: raw beans with no name, no story, no margin. Aceh's biggest problem, I think, is not a lack of resources. The problem is that the execution is never completely complete.
We Have Risen, But The Engine Has Not Started
Since 2005, Aceh has arguably risen: poverty has decreased, quality of life has improved, the job market has slowly recovered. But the value-added engine hasn't really switched on yet. The 2020-2025 period came like a second wave: the pandemic shook things up, Aceh rose again, but dependence on transfers from the center hasn't diminished much. The special autonomy fund is slowly shrinking, while the next five years demand that we play in the ASEAN league, no longer the provincial league, let alone the league among districts. Special autonomy funds may lengthen our breath, but they don't build our muscle.
Why now? Because the map and the signs are already available. The Aceh government has drafted the 2025-2029 RPJMA draft, and the central government has opened a passageway Indonesia Blue Economy Roadmap 2023–2045 launched by Bappenas in Belitung, July 2023, the roadmap targets the contribution of the marine economy to increase to 15 percent of GDP by 2045, from a potential estimated at more than USD 1.3 trillion. The practical translation is simple: Aceh only needs to connect the wires and start the engine. A long coastline, Sabang's position on Indonesia's Archipelagic Sea Lane (ALKI), Gayo coffee, oil and gas, minerals and coal, EBTKE (new and renewable energy), fish stocks, and tourism markets. We're not short on fuel. What's lacking is consistent execution. We too often forget to carry the development baton forward properly.
Our Neighbors Are Not Waiting
Overseas, Singapore continues to lock in its position as a node of Asian goods flows. Throughout 2024, its container flows broke a new record of 41.12 million TEUs, up 5.4 percent from 39 million TEUs a year earlier, and about 90 percent of it was transshipment cargo that was simply in transit before being sent to other destinations.1 If we still ship fish without a proper cold chain, margins will continue to move to neighboring ports like this. In Malaysia, the electrical and electronics sector accounted for 39.9 percent of the country's total exports throughout 2024, the highest share ever recorded, a mirror of deep and presentable value-added industries.2 Thailand also remains firmly established as the region's automotive base, with automotive product exports that once topped around USD 44 billion, although they've recently started to slow as global demand weakens, a reminder that a position in the regional value chain is never automatically secure forever.3
In the country, too, the competition is not relaxing. Java island still accounts for about 57 percent of the national GDP throughout 2024, according to the early 2025 BPS release.4 In Sumatra alone, Belawan New Container Terminal is doubling its capacity from 600 thousand to 1.4 million TEUs through a partnership with DP World, the operator of Dubai's home port, with the Indonesia Investment Authority and Pelindo.5 The Riau Islands continued to pursue aggressive investment, while South Sumatra and West Sumatra recorded steady growth. All of this is not merely a threat to Aceh; it is also a network that we can benefit from, provided that the quality, volume, and timing of our services can be trusted by trading partners.
Four engines to be powered 2026-2030
From the experience of sitting in a position that allows me to see this issue from the corporate side as well as from the field, I think at least four things should move together, not alternately, because we don't have much time to work on it one by one.
First, assets should not be left idle. Port warehouses, cold chain facilities, quality-control laboratories, modern fish markets, strategic land, all of this must be packaged into service-based projects with clear financial targets: return on investment, return on equity, and dividends for the region. If assets are left to sleep, don't be surprised if regional own-source revenue (PAD) sleeps right along with them.
Second, the blue-green industrialization and maritime logistics. Fisheries must move up a class, from just "ice and a prayer" to processing with HACCP standards and full traceability. Gayo coffee needs to shift lanes, from being sold by the ton to becoming a brand: roastery, capsules, ready-to-drink, with a consistent origin story told to the buyer. Sabang and the west-south coast have a real chance to become a blue hub: clean bunkering, ship chandlery, bonded warehousing, one-stop licensing services. All powered by pollution-free energy sources like natural gas and solar power (PLTS).
Third, a ready-to-absorb workforce and MSMEs leveling up to digital. Vocational training shouldn't stop at being a formality that gets put on display and then forgotten. Short-course academies for fisheries quality control, cold chain operators, through to content and e-commerce, should be contracted directly with industry; the agreement shouldn't just be a ceremonial certificate, but a clear labor-absorption quota. For MSMEs, what survives is what's seen on the screen: packaging and brand identity programs, standardized product photography, digital catalogs, and data-driven business decisions.
Fourth, governance in favor of investment. Investors, at their core, don't like surprises. We need a cross-agency acceleration unit to break through licensing bottlenecks, and a transparent dashboard covering data on poverty, investment, PAD (regional own-source revenue), and blue economy indicators. The cost of capital falls when uncertainty falls — that's a basic economic principle, not some great secret.
Imagine Sabang, one morning in 2029
The cargo ship docked at seven in the morning. Refrigerated trucks line up neatly. The quality laboratory opens fifteen minutes later. Loading documents completed before Dhuhr. Fishing cooperatives paste the trace code of origin (tracking code) in each fish box. Groups of divers check-in via the application, leave for dive points where daily capacity is limited, and return in the afternoon without garbage scattered at sea. That's not an exaggeration. That's a working pattern that can be calculated, audited, and funded, provided that we stop waiting for “perfect human resources” like waiting for rain in the dry season.
Fewer words, more numbers. Fewer meetings and plans, more business deals and cargo shipments. A healthy economy isn't the one that looks best on a presentation slide, but the one felt fastest in ordinary people's wallets. If government stays sharp on results, industry dares to absorb and invest, MSMEs stay disciplined on quality and digital, and the younger generation keeps sharpening its skills and work ethic, then by 2035 Aceh will no longer be just a spectator in its own port. And I hope that nine years from now, there's no need to write another "third episode" repeating the same disquiet: will the Andaman Block ever truly, fully become ours?
Data sources:
1. Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore & PSA Singapore, rilis kinerja tahunan, Januari 2025.
2. MATRADE (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation), Trade Performance Report 2024.
3. Statista / Thailand Automotive Export data, fiscal year 2023, with a slowdown recorded throughout 2024.
4. Central Statistics Agency (BPS), regional economic growth release 2024, February 2025.
5. DP World & Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), pengumuman kemitraan Belawan New Container Terminal, 2023.
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