Taiwan agrees to resume rice aid to Indonesia
Taiwan agrees to resume rice aid to Indonesia
By Sylvia Gratia M. Nirang
TAIPEI (JP): Taiwan will deliver promised rice aid to
Indonesia after a delay of almost one year, according to the
chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), Rahardi Ramelan.
Rahardi, who is in Taipei to lead an Indonesian trade and
investment mission, said here on Saturday that Taiwan would
provide cash instead of rice as earlier pledged.
"Taiwan will provide Indonesia with cheap loans to procure
200,000 tons of rice pledged by Taiwan last year," Rahardi, who
is also the minister of industry and trade, said.
He said the rice aid would help Indonesia feed its population
of some 202 million.
"Even though we could have a better harvest this year, we will
still need at least two million tons of aid to meet domestic
demand," he said after meeting with Taiwanese officials.
Rahardi said Taiwan pledged in August last year to provide
Indonesia with 200,000 tons of rice to help Indonesia cope with
its worst ever economic crisis. But the rice aid was delayed
after the United States criticized the aid program.
The U.S. government said the sale of cheap rice to Indonesia
would disrupt rice prices on the international market.
However, several newspapers speculated that Taiwan halted the
aid to protest the Indonesian government's discrimination against
Indonesians of Chinese origin.
Rahardi denied this speculation, saying the delay was due to
pressure from the United States.
Rahardi said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and China would
also provide loans to help Indonesia finance its rice imports.
"With this aid we may not need commercial procurements from
the international market this year," he said.
Indonesia is predicted to harvest 49.2 million tons of
unhusked rice this year, an increase of some 6 percent from the
46.44 million tons in 1998.
The unhusked rice can be milled into 31 million tons of milled
rice. The country's rice consumption is predicted to reach 33
million tons of rice this year.
The country is expected to import at least two million tons of
rice this year to meet domestic demand.
Meanwhile, Bulog Director of Foreign Procurement M. Ismeth
said the agency would sell its stocks of wheat flour, soybeans
and sugar in June.
Ismeth said Bulog currently had around 500,000 tons of wheat
flour and 200,000 tons of sugar and soybeans each.
"The stocks will be released into the market gradually so they
will not disrupt domestic prices," he said.
Bulog lost its sugar, soybean and wheat flour monopolies in
September last year under an agreement the government reached
with the International Monetary Fund, with the latter agreeing to
organize a bailout package for Indonesia.
Following the removal of the monopoly, the government
liberalized the trade and importation of the three commodities.
Bulog is now responsible only for the importation and
distribution of rice.