More government incentives urged to boost agribusiness

JAKARTA (JP): Agribusiness is potentially lucrative but more incentives are needed to attract investors, the Agribusiness Agency's head said yesterday.

Ato Suprapto of the Ministry of Agriculture said the government should provide the same fiscal, monetary and technical incentives to agribusiness as it did for other sectors.

Such incentives, he said, would encourage further investment and development of agribusiness.

He said the Agribusiness Agency had taken "strategic steps" to develop the sector such as providing agribusiness training and consultancy and holding business seminars.

"We have also encouraged the use of venture capital and incubator programs," Ato told the Forum for National Consultancy on Agribusiness Development in Denpasar, Bali.

Ato said monetary policy must simplify procedures for bank loans at reasonable interest rates to help agribusiness.

Fiscal policies should include exemptions for agribusiness from income tax, export tax and capital-goods import tax, he said.

Ato said the country's ability to achieve its national development goals would depend on how well it adjusted to the liberalization trends created by the World Trade Organization, the ASEAN Free Trade Area and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

"Agricultural development will have to focus on commodities with comparative and competitive advantages which can compete particularly on the international level," he said. (pwn)