TPL to resume operations soon
TPL to resume operations soon
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite increasing protests from non-governmental organizations
and locals, pulp mill PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), the new name
for PT Inti Indorayon Utama, will go ahead with its plan to
resume operations in the next two months after gaining a green
light from the government.
Leo S. Batubara, chairman of the 11-member team (Team 11)
appointed by the government to tackle the pulp mill issue, said
there would no more hindrances for the pulp company to resume
operations in accordance with a joint decree issued by four
ministers recently.
The joint decree signed by Minister of Industry and Trade Rini
M. S. Soewandi, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob
Nuwa Wea, Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim and Minister of
Forestry M. Prakosa, allows the pulp factory to resume operations
on the condition that it will apply environmentally friendly
technology and its environmental performance will be audited
annually.
The decree also requires the pulp mill to adopt a sustainable
approach in exploiting the forest and to carry out a social
community development program to empower people living around the
factory in Porsea, a small town in Toba-Samosir, North Sumatra.
The company is required to allocate 1 percent of its annual
net sales or around Rp 7 billion for its social community
development program. It is also expected to contribute around Rp
55 billion annually in taxes and fees to the local
administration.
"We are confident that TPL will undertake all efforts to avoid
any deterioration of the environment," he said in a press
conference here on Wednesday.
An alliance of NGOs and many locals in Toba-Samosir have
opposed the pulp mill's reopening because of its bad performance
and superior attitude in the past. So far, 16 people, including
two church ministers, are facing charges of vandalism at the
Balige District Court in connection with the ransacking of the
Porsea district chief's office recently.
Besides being accused of causing damage to the environment,
the company has been blamed for lowering the water level of Lake
Toba and damaging the roads in the province.
The pulp factory was asked by former president B.J. Habibie to
halt operations temporarily in July, 1999 in response to a wave
of demonstrations both in North Sumatra and Jakarta. Dozens of
people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and security
personnel between 1999 and 2000.
The pulp company's new management with majority shares owned
by two consortia in Hong Kong and Boston, have pledged to comply
with the environmental law and all conditions required by the
government.
The management has also agreed to recruit as many workers as
possible from locals living around the factory to help cope with
the unemployment problem in the underdeveloped regency.