Holiday Ayo - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan spoke about the mandate of Indonesia's first President Soekarno when he designated 23 September 2022 as National Maritime Day.

59 years ago, on September 23, in front of the participants of the first maritime National Deliberation, Bung Karno delivered a state speech entitled "Return to the nation of the oceans". In his mandate, Soekarno emphasized that in the past our ancestors were a nation of sailors, a nation that sailed the seas. According to him, this was Soekarno's awareness that Indonesia's identity was a maritime nation.

As a result, in 1964, or a year after the first maritime national consultation, President Soekarno issued a decree No. 249 of 1964 regarding National Maritime Day.

According to Luhut, as the largest archipelagic country, the government wants Indonesia to become a strong maritime nation and a superior maritime nation as the center of world maritime civilization. National Maritime Day will be a reminder and encouragement in carrying out maritime development targets towards a golden Indonesia 2045.

He also hopes that the maritime literacy of the Indonesian people, which is currently still low, can be handled especially to encourage the pace of maritime development that the government is implementing.

In addition, increasing maritime literacy can also improve the public's perspective on the maritime economy. Maritime economy, he said, is not only economic activities that occur in water areas. But also activities in other places that follow up on results from water areas, as well as activities in other places that produce goods and services for marine areas.

As for Indonesia's gold target in 2045, according to him, it should also be used as a momentum for Indonesia's maritime glory as the world's maritime center. Luhut also believes that the world forecast that says Indonesia will become one of the top four economies in the world in 2045-2050 can be realized.