Government to establish food coordination team

JAKARTA (JP): The government will establish a team whose task is to coordinate the various existing national food agencies, says the Minister of Food and Chairman of the Logistic Board Ibrahim Hasan.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the National Coordination Meeting of Food here over the weekend, Ibrahim said that the team will be established in every province and regency with Indonesia's 27 provincial vice governors acting as coordinators.

"For this purpose, I will consult the minister of home affairs," he said.

The three-day coordinating meeting had earlier decided that the team will be divided into two task forces, the first one in charge of managing food supply and prices and the second one responsible for increasing national food quality and safety.

Each task force will be composed of officials from provincial administrations and the provincial offices of the ministries of agriculture, transmigration, forestry, public works, cooperatives and small enterprises, information, industry, health, education and culture, trade, tourism and post and telecommunication.

Also included in the task force are the meteorologic and geophysics office, the state-owned fertilizer company PT Pupuk Sriwijaya and the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN).

Presently, there are more than eight bodies in Indonesia that supervise food. They include the food supply team, commodities scales team, the provincial nutrient improvement team, and the committee of non-oil export development.

The meeting also decided that the new team will not reduce the function of the previous ones as its main duty is coordinating, reporting and giving advice on how to solve food problems.

The formation of team will likely be linked with the previous comment made by the Minister of National Development Planning/ Chairman of National Development Planning Board, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, who said that it might be necessary to review the role of existing food agencies.

Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. seemed to agree on Friday, as he showed apprehension that the coordination of food in some provinces remains difficult. (03)