Newsprint crisis

Newsprint crisis

The Indonesian press industry has over the past weeks
complained about the shortage of newsprint. Newspaper publishers
and book printers, in facing the crisis of newsprint supplies,
asked the government to intervene. The paper crisis is as a
matter of fact due to the prevailing monopoly practice in the
paper market.

The newsprint producers are accused of taking advantage of the
monopoly privilege to generate the greatest profits possible.
Reports in the media disclosed that in the last few months the
price of newsprint in the international market has increased
significantly. This price increase then prompted the newsprint
producers to export their products, while the domestic price
remained the same, i.e. Rp 1,700 per kilogram.

According to Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo, the
existing newsprint industry could supply 300,000 tons of
newsprint annually at the official price of Rp 1,700 per kilo.
But Handjojo, acting chairman of the Association of Newspaper
Publishers, said that publishers had no idea where the paper had
gone. There must be a missing link in the mechanism of the
regulation. Therefore Minister Tunky Ariwibowo has requested
Aspex, the supplier of 80 percent of domestic newsprint needs, to
reduce its export and increase the supply for the domestic market
by 2,000 to 14,000 tons this month. This is indeed a rare and
strange situation.

Formerly the government claimed that the production capacity
of newsprint exceeded the demand. But it seems that that is not
the case. The monopoly that has been enjoyed by newsprint
industries must be put to an end, leaving newsprint industries to
compete in the open market.

The fact that Mr Lee Won Je, president of PT Aspex Paper, is
subsidizing domestic newspaper publishers by selling the products
at prices below production costs is hard to believe.

We have so far been able to maintain and keep our national
economic growth on the right track. But I wonder why the crises
with cooking oil, cement and now newsprint occurred. A solution
to this problem must be sought if stability and a good national
reputation are to be achieved.

ALOYSIUS HARYONO

Jakarta