Only a grain of truth
Most certainly The Jakarta Post, and quite probably Antara news agency and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have made available only a pittance of the information concerning the licensing of companies to import iodized salt. While it is newsworthy that such licenses have been issued, a more professional news release would contain background information sufficient to answer the most common of questions prompted by the news release itself. A few questions which follow naturally from a scan of the article are:
* What are the names of the companies that have received licenses?
* What are the details of the selection process used to select the companies?
* Is the selection process fair, equal and transparent?
* What fees apply to the obtaining of a license to import iodized salt?
* What rights, benefits and obligations does the license holder accrue with the license?
With the current per kilogram market price of salt at Rp 800 (10 U.S. cents), as stated in the article, the projected market value for the 805,000 metric tons of salt expected to be imported by seven of the nine licensed companies amounts to $80.5 million. Surely such value deserves more than a simple announcement that licenses have been issued.
I hope the Post will do a follow-up article which will include answers to the questions noted above. A better alternative would be for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to formulate an adequate response and make it available for publication in English and Indonesian-language publications.
A side note: A domestic demand estimate of 609,000 tons translates into nearly 3 kg consumption for each and every Indonesian citizen (current population estimate: 209 million). Such a high per capita consumption rate is at best not healthy, and also may not be realistic. A shortage of salt for domestic use will benefit Indonesians in general, as such a shortage will act to improve health statistics, due to the lowering of people's blood pressure and high blood pressure-related deaths.
C. DUPUIS
Jakarta