Directorate General of Sea Transportation, Indonesia, Patimban Port environmental permitting and lender safeguards

Patimban Port is a new international seaport in Subang Regency, West Java, built to strengthen the port logistics capacity of the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JICA, 2022). The executing agency is the Directorate General of Sea Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation (JICA, 2022). The project is financed by Japanese ODA loans. JICA classed it as Category A, because it is in a sensitive area and is likely to have significant adverse impacts (JICA, n.d.). The project therefore had to satisfy both Indonesian environmental law and the JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations.

Approach

• National environmental permit. The project's environmental impact analysis (Amdal) was submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which approved it in February 2017 (The Jakarta Post, 2017; JICA, 2022). The Transportation Ministry said the next steps were the project location submission and detailed engineering design before the loan was approved (The Jakarta Post, 2017).
• Updating the permit when the design changed. When the detailed design changed the project, an additional environmental document was prepared to reflect the changes, with approval expected by May 2022 (JICA, 2022).
• Meeting domestic and lender rules together. Land acquisition, compensation and livelihood restoration follow a Land Acquisition and Resettlement Action Plan (LARAP) prepared under Indonesia's domestic procedures and the JICA guidelines (JICA, 2022). The LARAP states that it complies with the JICA guidelines issued in April 2010 (Directorate General of Sea Transportation, 2017).
• Supervised monitoring and public disclosure. JICA's 2022 evaluation assigned monitoring of anti-pollution, road traffic safety and other measures during construction to contractors under the supervision of the executing agencies (JICA, 2022). JICA's public disclosure page includes monitoring reports from 2019 and a latest listed report for 2025Q2 (JICA, n.d.).
• Clear responsibilities after construction. The 2022 evaluation envisaged that, once the port is operating, the Port Authority and private operators would monitor anti-pollution measures, with ship waste to be processed at port facilities under domestic laws and regulations (JICA, 2022).

Results

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry approved the Amdal in February 2017 (JICA, 2022). JICA's disclosure page lists monitoring reports from 2019 to a latest listed report for 2025Q2 (JICA, n.d.). Those records support the process described; they do not by themselves establish compliance with every permit condition.