RI futures exchange legally well prepared
RI futures exchange legally well prepared
JAKARTA (JP): Preparations to put the country's long-awaited
commodities futures exchange into operation are nearing
completion as the necessary legal infrastructure has been put in
place.
Arifin Lumban Gaol, chairman of the Indonesian Commodities
Exchange Agency (Bapebti), said here on Wednesday that President
B.J. Habibie had issued Government Regulation No. 9/1999, which
sets the operational guidelines for the exchange, as mandated by
law No. 32/1997.
"All the hard work has been completed. One more small step is
needed to make the commodities futures exchange operational," he
said at a seminar on the futures exchange, held by the Faculty of
Law at the University of Indonesia.
Arifin said Habibie would issue a presidential decree to
legalize the transition of Bapebti's role from an operating body
to a supervisory body.
Bapebti is to act as the futures exchange supervisory board
when the exchange is fully operational. The supervisory board
will be under the management of the Ministry of Industry and
Trade.
Arifin said the commodities futures exchange would begin to
operate, at the latest, in the first quarter of 2000.
He said the exchange will be operated by a private management
company, PT Bursa Perdagangan Berjangka Komoditi, to be
established by about 40 companies mainly within the Association
of Indonesian Coffee Exporters and the Federation of Indonesian
Vegetable Oil and Fat Associations.
"Each of the participating companies in PT Bursa Perdagangan
Berjangka Komoditi has to inject Rp 250 million (US$28,700) cash
into the company," Arifin said.
This management company, when established, has
responsibilities including the educating of traders and brokers,
installment of the exchange's computer system and providing the
commodities exchange building.
In its daily operations, the management company is supported
by commodities clearing houses PT Kliring and PT Jaminan Bursa
Komoditi, and commodities traders and brokers will work under the
two institutions with commodity buyers.
Arifin mentioned that the most urgent commodities to be traded
in Indonesia would be coffee and palm oil because of the severe
price fluctuations of the products.
Presidential decree No. 12/1999 states that palm oil and
coffee can be traded in the exchange.
Other commodities that may be traded in the bourse in the
future, Arifin said, include plywood, pulp and paper, cacao,
coal, pepper, gold, shrimp, fish, corn, peanuts, soybeans, rice,
sugar, cement and fertilizer.
When operational, Arifin said, farmers could use the bourse to
protect themselves from price fluctuations. They could sign a
contract to sell their crop at a certain date in the future at a
pre-arranged price, and thus, if the price drops before that
date, the loss is assumed by the investor.
"The exchange can also serve as a commodities price
reference," he added. (02)