Government to establish food coordination team

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)