Poor green laws attract dirty industries<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Many national and multinational firms once
\nforced to close down their dirty industries due to strict local
\nenvironmental regulations, are now shifting investment and
\nproduction to countries with less stringent rules.<\/p>\n
Prof. Rolf-Ulrich Sprenger, Director of Environmental Economic
\nDivision, at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich,
\nGermany, said yesterday that slack environmental regulations,
\nalong with traditional determinants like cheap labor and energy
\ncosts, and an abundant natural resources supply, had attracted
\nforeign investment.<\/p>\n
\"According to several surveys in West Germany during the last
\ndecade, environmental considerations were generally one of the
\nless important reasons to invest abroad,\" Sprenger told a seminar
\non environment and manpower organized by the Indonesian Manpower
\nFoundation (YTKI) and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES).<\/p>\n
Industrial relocation is one of the numerous negative effects
\nof poor enforcement of environmental regulations. Sprenger
\nobserved that there might be some other negative effects like the
\nloss of jobs due to the closure of polluting plants or project
\ncancellations and delays, but he underlined that the negative
\neffects were outnumbered by the positive ones.<\/p>\n
He said that environmental programs have created thousands of
\njobs in the pollution control equipment industry, the
\nconstruction industry, environmental research and development,
\nthe operations and maintenance of pollution control equipment,
\nmunicipalities and government environmental agencies.<\/p>\n
\"A study prepared for the United States assessed the annual
\nimpact of environmental expenditures on employment at
\napproximately 4 million jobs in 1992,\" he said, adding that the
\nfigures represented about three percent of total employment.<\/p>\n
Three surveys in West Germany in the past decade also showed
\nhow the environmental field has benefited the job market. In 1990
\nthere were 546,000 working in the field, or 1.9 percent of the
\nemployment in West Germany.<\/p>\n
Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, a professor from the law schools of
\nthe Gadjah Mada University and the University of Indonesia,
\nsupported Sprenger's argument that environmental programs would
\nincrease employment opportunities.<\/p>\n
He said that the implementation of environmental policies
\ncarried out through environmental regulations called for ample
\nmanpower.<\/p>\n
Hampered<\/p>\n
The lack of personnel and professionalism were two of the
\nfactors that had hampered the implementation the environmental
\nlaw in this country, according to Koesnadi.<\/p>\n
\"Upgrading courses should be provided on a regular basis to
\npolice, prosecutors, judges and counselors to ascertain an up-to-
\ndate knowledge of environmental regulations for proper law
\nenforcement,\" Koesnadi said.<\/p>\n
State Minister of Environment\/Head of the Agency for the
\nEnvironmental Impact Management (Bapedal) Sarwono Kusumaatmadja
\nsaid in his written speech presented by the agency deputy head,
\nPL Coutrier, that all companies, big, small or medium (SEM),
\nshould pay attention to the environment.<\/p>\n
\"SEMs expanding in the textile, electroplating, and food and
\nbeverage sectors are known to be pollution intensive and
\nsignificantly impact the local environment in which they
\noperate,\" he said.(sim)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/poor-green-laws-attract-dirty-industries-1447893297",
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