Despite being the largest archipelagic state and having a vast number of qualified seafarers, Indonesia is still not considered a key supplying nation of seafarers - by the global merchant ship community. This study aims to describe Indonesia's capabilities as a supplying country (opportunities) and the perceptions of international shipowners/ managers toward employing Indonesian seafarers (challenges), generally and specifically during the COVID19 pandemic. Methods deployed in this study were qualitative exploratory descriptive using observational primary and secondary data collected from an Indonesian ship crew agency. The study concludes that Indonesia as a country and its infrastructure is ready to become a key supplying country of seafarers from the SE Asia region and the event of a COVID-19 pandemic has shown an increasing demand for the employment of Indonesian seafarers, which also confirms the acceptance by the international merchant ship-owners of the competence equality of Indonesian seafarers to their Filipino counterparts. This paper recommends a coordinated effort at the national level involving key stakeholders that highlights the importance of promoting Indonesian seafarers to the international merchant ship community.
Key words: largest archipelagic state, seafarers, COVID-19 pandemic
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