U.S. Helps Build Indonesian Marine Force Training Center, December 6, 2006

Press Release: Today, the United States and Indonesia marked the opening of a new training center at the Indonesian Marine Police Training Facility, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. U.S. Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe assisted in ribbon cutting and signing documents to turn the facility over to the Indonesian Government.

During the ceremony, Ambassador Pascoe remarked: “This classroom and auditorium will help enhance the quality of Indonesia’s law enforcement professionals, in particular the Marine Police, in an increasingly difficult and dangerous environment of organized transnational crime and terrorism.”

Construction of the new training center was funded by the U.S. Government through the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) West to assist Indonesia in training of the Indonesian Marine Police aimed at promoting maritime security and thwarting transnational crime. U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander William Brewer, a representative of JIATF West, said that JIAFT West supports the efforts of counter-drug law enforcement authorities to fight transnational criminal organizations.

Initial planning of this project started in 2004. Groundbreaking began in April 2006 and construction was completed six months later. Total cost of the construction project was approximately US$700,000.