I do agree that more competition mean better price & option for customer. I don't know what the real reason behind the regulation. What about safety reason in public transport business? shipping for cargo and public transport by the sea is considered vital and can be dangerous if managed carelessly, just like the air transport. The fatality can be substantial if bad thing happen on the sea.
We all familiar with 'sinking overcapacity boats' story. That's alone is an enough reason to tighten the regulation and force the players in shipping business to operate more professionaly and bring more safety factor into consideration.
Maybe the intention is good just like you said, but it's definitely overkill. One thing we need to remember, a ship is expensive, so the owner already have all the incentive needed to not get any accident, especially for small shipping company, one big accident can make the owner bankrupt and/or even go to jail. IMO Better regulation and inspection is the answer not some arbitrary number.
Beside 50m is way too high, a company already can be profitable with 2 ships and attentive owner who care about his customer need/request.
Also Lion Air is a good lesson that there's no real correlation between size and professionally. Plenty other smaller regional airline has a better track record than Lion. Oh yeah, the air industry also have similar regulation now, ironically there won't be a Susi Air (and maybe a Susi Pudjiastuti as Jokowi's minister) today, if the regulation already implements in 2000's
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