Ecolabeling agency to study firms
Ecolabeling agency to study firms
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo
said yesterday that forestry-related firms intending to go public
must be assessed by and gain approval from the ecolabeling
agency.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Djamaludin said the
Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency (LEI) will soon start assessing
forestry firms to determine whether or not they are ready to
comply with ecolabeling requirements.
Starting the year 2000, ecolabeling will become a prerequisite
for producers of tropical timber to gain access to markets in
certain consumer countries.
Djamaludin said the agency, which is chaired by former
environment and population minister Emil Salim, will start its
assessments in a couple of months as a tryout before the
ecolabeling requirement is actually implemented.
The agency will prioritize forestry firms that intend to go
public, Djamaludin added.
He was responding to recent reports stating that the Surya
Dumai Group, which has businesses in forestry-related sectors,
was planning to go public.
When plans started late last year, executives of Surya Dumai
had said the company planned to sell 60 million shares or 30
percent of its total shares.
Surya Dumai aims at collecting Rp 180 billion (US$78.26
million) from the sales of its shares.
Djamaludin reiterated yesterday that the Ministry of Forestry
will not give any recommendation to firms that rely on timber
from natural forests for their raw material supply.
Apart from a recommendation from LEI, forestry firms planning
to go public must also conduct a public presentation and gain
approval from the government and from surveyor companies.
"The ecolabeling agency will ensure a firm's environmental
sustainability while the surveyor will assess its production
capability," he said.
Security
Djamaludin said all these requirements were necessary to give
a sense of security to prospective investors. "We don't want
investors to buy a cat in the bag," he said.
Djamaludin said earlier this year that an assessment of 61
concessionaires included in a pilot project concluded that only
nine were considered "adequately prepared" to meet ecolabeling
requirements and none were actually "prepared".
Furthermore, the government decided not to extend or issue the
logging permits of 68 out of 188 concessionaires which had
submitted their annual logging plans for the 1996/1997 fiscal
year.
The decision was based on the poor performance of the
concessionaires, which were said to have failed to meet the basic
requirements needed to be allowed to harvest at their full
capacities.
These requirements include, among other things, developing
social forestry programs and timber estates in cooperation with
transmigrants, paying all official levies and fees and planting
certain crops.
The ministry in 1994 rejected the proposal of PT Artika Optima
Inti -- a subsidiary of the Djajanti Group -- to go public,
although the firm had already received the go-ahead from the
Capital Market Supervisory Agency. Artika was said to have failed
to meet a number of obligations. (pwn)