Construction of plants regulated

Construction of plants regulated

JAKARTA (JP): The government announced a ban yesterday on the construction of plants outside of industrial estates located in the Tangerang area of West Java for environmental reasons.

"Industrial plants have been crowded in Tangerang and construction of new factories outside industrial estates will damage the environment," Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo told journalists after meeting with President Soeharto at Bina Graha here yesterday.

Tunky, who has been assigned by the president to coordinate industrial estate development in the country, said that West Java alone currently has 19 industrial estates with a total area of 7,300 hectares, of which 2,400 hectares are ready for the establishment of industrial facilities.

"But only 440 factories have been established on a total area of 1,300 hectares in the industrial estates," the minister said.

He said the President instructed investors planning to operate in West Java to construct their industrial facilities in industrial estates.

"The government is offering easy processing of licenses to investors planning to set up plants in industrial estates, while operators of industrial estates will help them deal with government institutions in license processing," Tunky said.

He said investors can also set up their plants in industrial estates in other provinces, which generally offer lower prices for their areas than their competitors in West Java.

Paper

Tunky said he also reported to the President on the latest developments in the country's paper industry.

"Because prices on the world market are increasing, the government will gradually lower the duty on paper from its current level of 20 percent to support the development of industries using paper as feedstocks," the minister said.

He explained that the price of HVS (printing) paper on the world market has now increased to US$1,100 per ton from merely $550 early last year and newsprint to $750 from $480.

He said the government will ask paper producers to guarantee adequate supplies on the domestic market and encourage downstream plants to increase their exports, so that the country's paper- based industries will get higher added value and create more employment.

Indonesia's 60 paper plants currently have a total production capacity of 3.72 million tons per annum, while its paper utilization last year reached only 2.26 million tons, he said.

Indonesia has a much room to increase exports of paper products, which in 1993 reached only $77 million, or 1.01 percent of the world's total imports worth $7.6 billion, he added.

According to Tunky, the country currently has 6,400 printing companies, of which 87 percent are small in size.

The minister said he also reported to the President on the rising prices of motorcycles and scooters due to sharp increases in demand.

Indonesia's four motorcycle and scooter companies produced 780,000 units last year, he said. (riz)