KEI KECIL: THE SOON-TO-BE WORLD'S LARGEST SEAWEEDS PRODUCTION BASE!

Ambon, July 5, 2010. Our Marine Industries Team has set foot in Kei Islands and have established over 40 community-based industry cluster groups there.

Today, we have witnessed the amazing growth of seaweeds like never before. The production level exceeded our expectations. Our past experiences in Ambon and its surroundings can not match the results we are experiencing in Kei Islands area. Simply put: we are astonished!

From productivity level perspective, the people at Kei Islands are much more productive than the people at Central Maluku region (including Ambon and its surroundings). Local wisdom & culture plays key role to the consistent level of productivity.

For many years Kei is labelled as underdeveloped. Today, they have broken all these labels and have set foot to be an economic giant in Eastern Indonesia.
Nonetheless, many aspects of both economic & social development need to be properly & integratedly planned and managed. An integrated plan that accommodate & integrate community-based economic development programs such as ours should be the local government first priority. Not because we are running such program but because Kei communities have proved to be the most potential drivers for sustainable economic development.

SEAMLESS INTEGRATION

Kei Kecil offers many distinctly mind-blogging natures that are also the perfect sanctuaries for seaweeds production. Combining both advantages will make Kei Kecil as the preferred location for Eco-Tourism in Eastern Indonesia. Tourists can come to learn how seaweeds production works. They can take part in planting and/or harvesting process while enjoying the second-to-none beauty of the nature. Apart from Eco-Tourism, Kei Kecil also has the abundant potential for Knowledge-based Tourism to be developed & successful.

Other than seaweeds that are currently mass-produced by almost all coastal communities there, Pearl Culturing has also been part of Kei people economic life for many years. In one of our communities, seaweeds are planted side by side with Pearl culturing base. Again, this allows tourists to be exposed to multiple Knowledge-based tourism spots that will definitely create more excitement.