Growing together with the community

Growing together with the community

Growing together with the community in which a mining company operates is the key to operating successfully in Indonesia.

"Any natural resource-based company like a mining firm should not separate themselves from the environment and community living near their operation sites. They should show concern for problems faced by locals if they want to win support from them," President and Chief Executive Officer of publicly listed PT International Nickel Indonesia (Inco), Bing Tobing, explained.

A company that fulfills its obligations, such as paying royalties, taxes and land rental fees was good but not enough to ensure that it can operate peacefully, according to Bing.

"For us, adapting our presence to the local environment and community is a requirement when we want to grow. Only by growing together with the local people, can we operate peacefully," he said.

To help the surrounding people, he said, the company had designed and conducted many community development (CD) programs based on what the people need. "For instance, many young people are currently in need of a job, so our CD program is focused on education to allow them to have more job alternatives," he said.

Bing also emphasized the importance of disseminating any change of policy made by the company's management, such as a policies on job vacancies or employee recruitment. "By getting the word out about the changes in policy, possible unexpected incidents such as demonstrations can be prevented because locals understand the reasons," he said.

PT Inco spends about US$1.5 million on CD programs per year. The money is used to finance the projects related to such things as education, health and agriculture in Sorowako, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.