TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian government proposed an Indonesia-Austria collaboration in building a biofuel factory in Austria. “The raw material will come from Indonesia,” said Hatta Rajasa, The Coordinating Minister of Economy, yesterday after meeting the Austrian Economic Minister, Reinhold Mitterlehner.
According to Hatta, besides aiming to penetrate the European market, building that factory is part of the government’s strategy to reduce the negative image of Indonesia’s palm oil industry.
“With this collaboration, they can understand that our palm oil industry does not damage the environment as rumored,” said Hatta. In the meeting, Austria also proposed the construction of cable trains for Indonesia’s big cities.