House pushes for industrial estate permits to be issued within three months

Tangerang Regency (ANTARA) - Chair of the Working Committee for the Industrial Estates Bill at House Commission VII, Chusnunia Chalim, is pushing for industrial estate licensing to be cut to a maximum of three months to provide certainty for investors.

According to Chusnunia, the lengthy licensing process remains one of the problems faced by investors even though the service system has been made online and integrated.

“With a lease system where rent has already been paid even before permits are obtained, if licensing can take six months to a year, investors suffer considerable losses. First, their equipment cannot operate, and second, they have already paid a long-term lease,” she said after a site visit and discussion in the context of drafting the Industrial Estates Bill at Cikupa Mas, Tangerang Regency, Banten, on Wednesday.

Therefore, Chusnunia considers cutting the licensing process to a maximum of three months to be a reasonable step.

However, she cautioned that faster licensing must not ignore the environmental impact analysis (AMDAL) process to prevent environmental damage from industrial development and downstreaming.

“That means the Industrial Estates Bill will address this,” she said.

House Commission VII is currently drafting the Industrial Estates Bill through a working committee by gathering input from estate managers and industrial stakeholders.

Licensing ease, business certainty, land affairs, spatial planning, infrastructure, and environmental management are among the issues collected by the working committee during the bill’s drafting process.

Chusnunia said communication between industry players and the government, both central and regional, is also needed to resolve various problems faced by industrial estates.

“Actually, when industry faces problems, there is no need to be afraid to communicate with the government, both central and regional. Because we certainly support healthy industry, industry that can run well, in line with good economic growth figures,” she said.

She assessed that Cikupa Mas Industrial Estate is one of the relatively healthy estates with maximum occupancy. Based on the presentation during the discussion, its investor composition is around 60 percent foreign and 40 percent domestic.

“So this is a relatively healthy industrial estate with maximum occupancy, and from the discussion we know that the ratio is 60 percent foreign investors and 40 percent local,” she said.

According to her, the estate’s management experience can serve as input for developing industrial estates in other regions, including eastern Indonesia, which has raw material potential for downstreaming.

Besides licensing, Chusnunia highlighted environmental issues in a number of older industrial estates that have not fully implemented the green industry concept.

She encouraged stakeholders to take concrete steps towards green industry, including providing adequate land for waste management.

Chusnunia also pushed for supervision of waste treatment results through laboratory testing, including of wastewater quality after the treatment process.

In addition, she asked the government to pay attention to groundwater use by industry so that it remains within safe limits and does not disrupt water availability for surrounding communities.

“Do not let that become the issue all along, that the water is used up by industry,” she said.