Soeharto wants tougher control on land use
Soeharto wants tougher control on land use
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto wants stricter control of
land use and ownership to prevent further reduction of the
country's agricultural areas due to land conversion.
"Land must not become an object for speculation, nor a means
for maximizing profits," he said in the keynote speech at the
opening of a workshop for the National Land Agency yesterday.
The opening ceremony at the State Palace was attended by more
than 300 senior officials, including State Minister of Agrarian
Affairs Soni Harsono, who also chairs the land agency, Minister
of Public Works Radinal Moochtar and State Minister of Public
Housing Akbar Tandjung.
"Nobody has the legal right to own or control an excessive
amount of land," the President said, while remarking that based
on the constitution, land is the property of the state.
"The government must plan in such a way that land is used for
the welfare of the people," he said.
Soeharto also said there is a need to set and enforce the
maximum limit of ownership of agricultural and urban land.
He called on officials at all levels to prevent the conversion
of irrigated fertile land, especially rice fields, to other non-
agricultural purposes.
Stricter land control is required to protect national food
production, which might be affected by land conversion, he added.
"We must carefully plan our land affairs because, in the age
of growing private investment, more land will be demanded by the
private sector," the President said.
Soeharto's remarks came not long after the Ministry of
Agriculture announced that the construction of new property and
industrial facilities consumes about 38,000 hectares of fertile
land annually in Java, Indonesia's main rice growing area.
The agriculture ministry also said that every year 50,000
hectares of land productive enough to grow rice are converted for
non-agricultural purposes throughout the country.
Soeharto also said yesterday that the country should strive to
maintain its status of self-sufficiency in rice, which was
achieved in 1984, by safeguarding highly productive rice fields.
Indonesia's rice production declined substantially last year.
Although prolonged drought was mostly to blame, increasing land
conversion was also responsible.
In a related land control development, the government
announced a ban last week on the construction of plants outside
of industrial estates located in the Tangerang area of West Java.
(hdj)