Govt sets up new agency for fores industry

Govt sets up new agency for fores industry

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Forestry
agreed on Monday to set up a new agency to help resolve the
various problems facing the country's ailing forestry-based
industry.

Antara news agency said the main missions of the new agency
would be to seek ways to boost the dwindling export performance
of the forestry-based industry, and to resolve the raw material
shortage hampering the industry.

It added that the agency would also help find ways to prevent
the country's natural forests from further degradation and to
protect the environment.

The new agency, to be officially unveiled next month, will be
called the Agency for Forestry-Based Industry Affairs and
Sustainable Raw Materials. It will consist of top officials from
the two ministries, and representatives from the industry.

Sources say that Minister of Trade and Industry Rini MS
Soewandi and Minister of Forestry M. Prakosa had been locked in a
heated debate over policy gaps between the two ministries before
agreeing to set up the agency.

Rini was quoted by Antara as saying that one of the agency's
main jobs would be to help curb illegal logging, which has caused
both environmental degradation and damage to the forestry-based
industry, whose exports have been badly affected.

Locally made plywood, for example, is more expensive than
products from overseas plywood manufacturers, who can buy
illegally cut logs smuggled out of Indonesia at much cheaper
prices.

Nana Suparna, an executive from the Indonesian Society of
Forestry and the Indonesian Forest Estate Association, said
industry players welcomed the planned agency.

"At least we can use the agency to hear out our problems," he
said.

Meanwhile, a source said those in the industry were hopeful
the agency could persuade the Ministry of Forestry to drop a
planned logging moratorium, which would drastically limit the
supply of logs for the forestry-related industry.

The Indonesian Wood Panel Association has predicted that some
75 percent of plywood companies will go bankrupt if the policy is
implemented.

The new policy is currently scheduled to become effective
early next year.