Open bidding system for logging contracts: Minister of Forestry
Open bidding system for logging contracts: Minister of Forestry
JAKARTA (JP): Newly appointed Minister of Forestry and
Plantations Muslimin Nasution said yesterday that he would study
the possibility of introducing an open bidding system to award
new logging contracts.
The former vice chairman of the National Development Planning
Board said that a bidding system would give the common people a
better chance of benefiting from the country's forest resources.
Muslimin said that Indonesia needed a better system to manage
forest concessions to ensure that logging activities not only
benefited large business groups but also small and medium sized
companies and cooperatives.
"The current system of forest management has not yet
integrated and accommodated small business, cooperatives and
local people," Muslimin said after a ceremony to mark the hand
over of duties from his predecessor Sumahadi, who held the
position for a mere two months.
He said that adopting an open bidding system to appoint new
forest concessionaires would help to ensure transparency in the
management of the country's forest resources.
"But I will further study the plan, and may add some
requirements such as involving local people in the management of
concessions through, for example, the use of their labor in
logging operations," he said.
The auction of forest concessions is stipulated in the
Supplementary Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies, a
reform package agreed by the government with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for emergency funds of US$43
billion.
Under the latest memorandum agreed with the IMF, Indonesia is
supposed to introduce the auction system by the end of next
month.
Indonesia has around 143 million hectares of forest, including
64 million hectares which have been leased to forest
concessionaires for logging operations.
At least 430 private companies are currently involved in
logging activities over a forest area of 61.7 million hectares.
The country's six state-owned forestry companies -- PT
Inhutani I to V and Perum Perhutani -- have logging operations
spread over approximately 2.3 million hectares of land.
The government first began to award forest concessions to
private companies through the 1971 Forestry Law, which granted
concessionaires the sole right to cultivate and exploit forests
in their concession areas.
Private concessions are mostly controlled by 50 leading
groups, including Kalimanis Group owned by Mohammad "Bob" Hasan,
PT Barito Pacific Timber owned by Prajogo Pangestu and Joso A.
Gautama, PT Djajanti Djaja Timber owned by Soejono Varinata and
PT Menara Hutan Buana owned by Probosutedjo.
Muslimin, a new face in the so-called Development Reform
Cabinet, said that he would also focus on efforts to provide more
employment and boost foreign exchange earnings from the forest
and plantations sector.
"Indonesia holds a comparative advantage in the sector and
related industries therefore have good export prospects," he
said, adding that he would welcome foreign investment, provided
it was of benefit to farmers and low-income households.
Muslimin said he would give reform of the palm oil sector
priority because it produced cooking oil, an important basic
commodity.
Married with three children, Muslimin, 59, is a graduate of
the Bandung Institute of Technology. He received his doctoral
degree from Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).
"I'm new here, so I'll study a lot. But I will finish the
difficult jobs today and the impossible tomorrow," he said,
adding that he expected the press to provide him with information
on any violations of the rules and collusive practices
perpetrated by officials in his ministry. (gis)