Futures commodity trading may start next year
Futures commodity trading may start next year
JAKARTA (JP): The government has begun working on the
implementation of a law on the futures commodity exchange, which
is expected to start operating next year, an official said
yesterday.
The chairman of Indonesian Commodity Exchange Board, Arifin
Lumban Gaol, said the board had started to set up the legal
structure on the implementation of the law, which was passed by
the House of Representatives in December.
"We have met several times to establish the draft regulation
on futures trading," Arifin said.
He said he expected the setting-up process would be completed
within a year or two.
"This will be in line with our economic recovery, so the
bourse will be more dynamic then, compared to if we were to begin
during the current crisis," he said.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo said earlier he
expected the futures commodity exchange to begin before 2000.
Arifin said a presidential decree would officially determine
which commodities would be traded, as well as the formation of
the supervisory board of the futures exchange.
The setting up of regulations and the legal structure of the
institution would be followed by the establishment of the futures
commodity exchange, which would be managed by a private company.
Coffee and palm oil will be the two main commodities to be
sold in the market. Others include rubber, pepper, cocoa,
plywood, shrimp, soybeans, cotton and clove.
Futures trading will be overseen by the new supervisory board
which will be working under the authority of the Ministry of
Industry and Trade.
Daily trading will be operated by bourse management and
commodities clearing house PT Kliring dan Jaminan Bursa Komoditi,
and commodity traders and brokers will work under the two
institutions with commodity buyers.
The board will also set up a separate division called Sentra
Dana Berjangka within the market, which will manage the funds of
buyers with less capital.
"Sentra Dana Berjangka is equal to mutual funds in the stock
market, it will pool the funds of small buyers and invest them,"
he said.
Arifin said the board received a lot of technical assistance
from foreign parties to establish the exchange market.
The United States Agency for International Development has
sent Joseph Dial, a former member of the supervisory board of the
United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission, to
Indonesia to help assist the board from Jan. 15 to Jan. 21, he
said.
The organization would also send four more consultants to help
the board, he said.
He said the bourse's supervisory board would also get
assistance from the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and
Australia Aid. (das)