Nusa Dua (ANTARA News) - President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Tuesday appealed to the private sector to increase its role in developing biofuel which is environment-friendly and more economical than fossil fuel.<\/p>\n
The president made the appeal when visiting a Sugar Group Companies (SGC) pavilion in a Cool Energy Exhibition held on the occasion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\"I hope it will be developed further,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Biofuel was far more economical than fossil fuel, SGC President Director Gunawan Yusuf said in reply to the head of state`s question.<\/p>\n
\"Without government subsidy premium-grade gasoline is currently priced at 72 dollar cents or around Rp6,600 per liter, while ethanol is only priced at Rp5,000 to Rp6,000 per liter,\" Gunawan said.<\/p>\n
In the long run, another 2.5 million hectares of land would be needed to develop biofuel to replace fossil fuel.<\/p>\n
The government would use idle land which currently covered an area of 7 million hectares to meet the need for land, he said.<\/p>\n
Separately, on Tuesday, Chief of the National Biofuel Development Team Al Hilal Hamdi said the team intended to make use of another 5 to 6 million hectares of idle land to develop biofuel until 2012. The land is located outside Java.<\/p>\n
\"We must develop the mass production of biofuel. Therefore, the government has set itself the target of using another 6 million hectares of land until 2012,\" he said.(*)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/president-asks-private-sector-to-develop-biofuel-1197415015", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }