Commission V of House Aggrieved by Empty Apartements in Nunukan

The technical team of commission V of parliaments was shocked and aggrieved to see that the modest apartments at jalan ujang dewa, district of south nunukan, regency of nunukan, east Kalimantan were without occupants although they had ben there since 2005. This was disclosed by chairman of commission V of house, joseph umarhadi upon inspecting the rusunawa apartments.

J

oseph rated that the building of rusunawa apartments, which was financed by the state budget had been a waste. Two blocks PT. rusunawi was built by the directorate general of cipta karya, ministry of public works. In view of that matter commission V of house had urged the government through assistant of the ministry of public housing to solve the problem. The rusunawa was supposed to be occupied by people of the low income group. Supposedly the building was not let to be damaged and go a waste.

In the beginning the rusunawa apartment was intended for Indonesian migrant workers who were Malaysia bound, considering that nunukan was ideally located near the borderline.

At that time the number of migrant workers in nunukan exploded to 100.000 people or more. When building of the apartment was completed, there was a new policy ran by the central government which relocated the place for document extention application of workers from nunukan to the consulate general of RI at Tawau, Malaysia.

Amendment of Law on Food Must be Fundamental

Food is Man’s primary need, therefore amendment of Law no 7 year 1996 (BN No 5934 page 208-258 etc) on food must be fundamental. Food satisfaction is part of man Individual Right. Fulfillment of need for food is most important as basic component for building high quality human resources.

Deputy chairman of commission IV of House Anna Muawanah told business news that food procurement at national and regional level was no guarantee for food resiliency or individual. This was because apart form food availability food resiliency at household/individual level depended highly on their access to food. In this case family income and purchasing power was a decisive factor in access to food.

Law no. 7 year 1996 on food is still very general and highly focused on food industry. In the implementation of the law there are still many obstacles such as in law enforcement, mostly sanctioning which are relatively light, not creating any deterrent effect on the law breaker.

Amendment of Law no 7/1996 on food is aimed at solving problems in food often in regard to quality of food, the content, production process, packaging, halal labeling, and most of all to maintain supply sufficiency, and to run fair and even distribution mechanism at affordable price to the people.

Meanwhile the president of PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia Bambang Proyono gave his input for the amendment of law no.7 year 1996 on food and proposed to include the global climate posed as a crusial factor to food production. In 2010 rain fell all year through causing sugar production to drop drastically. Therefore it was important to include climate change factor in the amendment of law no 7 1996 on food.

With the law on cultivation system, now farmers have a freedom to decided whatever plant to cultivate as long as they are regarded as profitable. Consequently sugar mills must come up with certain motivation steps like extending incentives or aid to encourage farmers to remain to plant sugar canes.

Marine Based National Development Needs Reorientation

Vice chairman of House’s Budget Agency, Tamsil Linrung, said that reorientation is necessary for marine-based national development. Indonesia can become the largest fisheries country in the world with total potential of fisheries product at around 65.1 million tons/year. China, which is currently the largest fisheries production of only not more than 60 million tons/year.

The high potential is not yet balanced with achievement in the form of acquirement of foreign exchange revenue and contribution to the national GDP. Until now, contribution of fisheries sector to GDP is only 25%.

While, macro structural factors are related to high interest rate of bank loan, which is around 14% a year. As a comparison, interest rate of bank loan in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines  is only 3.78%, in Australia 3%, and in japan 0.5%. in conclusion, political economic as well as fiscal and monetary polices currently are still oriented toward economic activities on land, and are less oriented toward economic activities in marine and fisheries sector.

There should be a minimum of 5 strategic steps to be taken in Indonesia’s fisheries development. Firstly, it must be made sure that the fishing intensity (number of fishing boats and fisherman) operating in each water territory shall be at optimal level, not exceeding the maximum sustainable yield (MSY).

Secondly, productivity and efficiency of the existing marine and brackishwater culture must be improved by applying Good Aquaculture Practices in accordance with supportiveness of the surrounding environment. Thirdly, infrastructure and production facilities for capture fisheries as well as culture based fisheries must be provided in accordance with the needs in each fisheries areas throughout Indonesia.

Fourthly, credit program with low interest rate and softer requirements for marine and fisheries sectors, like in Malaysia, Thailand, india, Vietnam, china, and business safety should be more conducive and attractive.

All public (political-economic) as well as fiscal and monetary policies, export-import, educational, science & technology, and regional autonomy policies must support marine and fisheries development through reorientation of marine and archipelagic based national development.

NEDO-PTPN X Bioethanol Factory Will Start Production 2012

Bioethanol factory under partnership scheme between Indonesia through PTPN X and japan through the new energy and industrial technology development organization (NEDO) grant aid. The factory is expected to start operation in February 2012. According to president director of PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) X, subiyono, who is accompanied by the manager of bioethanol project of PTPN X, Nur Iswanto, after signing of implementation Document (ID) of the partnership project in Jakarta on Thursday (April 21), the factory is planned to produce 30,000 kilolitres of bioethanol a year. Bioethanol production will be distributed to pertamina. Yet, however, if bioethanol production cannot absorbed by domestic market, some trading companies from overseas will buy the bioethanol. We will try to produce added value in the production of sugar factory Gempol Mojokerto owned by PTPN X. his project is considered feasible due to sufficiency of raw material, financial capacity, human resources, technology, and a willingness to do dissemination in the implementation of this project model” subiyono said. Director general of manufacturing industry base of ministry of industry, panggah susanto, said “the concept of sugar factory intefrated with a bioethanol factory is the model of a modern sugar industry through the creation of added value of agricultural products from the upstream to the downstream sectors” On August 2, 2010, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for bioethanol production was signed is in the form of USD 16 million grant from the Japanese government and USD 9.5 million contribution from Indonesia. Until now, a major part of molasses production is sold as export commodity in crude form, and is not yet utilized optimally as raw material for industry, amongst other, chemical and cosmetic industry. With a purification process, molasses can be used more optimally as raw material for industry. Another aspect of the partnership is a potential claim about attempt to reduce carbon emission in the framework of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). Reduction of carbon emission as a result of bioethanol production which will reduce consumption of fossil fuel. Claims of carbon credit under the partnership project will be submitted to the United Nations. And if it is approved, Indonesia will be considered positively by the international community.

JAMSOSTEK Workers Welfare Insurance Build 7 Apartment Blocks In reply to: Batam

PT Jamsostek had begun to build seven twin blocks of Rusunawan flats in the industrial area of Kabil, batam to complement 3 previous Rusunawa already built and ready in the same region.

Laying on first stone had been done by the Mayor of Batam Achmad Dahlan, president of jamsostek Hotbonar Sinaga, commissioner of KTTB Chris Wulan and other related parties by scooping sand together upon the building foundation at the integrated industrial estate at kabil (KITTB) in batam on Friday.

The stone laying ceremony was followed by stone laying for building sports facilities, mosque, multi purpose building, office building and shopping center at KTTB. In the background were six existing twin towers, three Jamsostek with specific color (green and white) and three other units by other developers.

Hotbonar said that the three twin block were expected to be occupied by workers this May 1^st coinciding with Labor Day commemoration. The Jamsostek Rusunawa apartment belonged to good living rental category.

Funding for these Rusunawa apartmet project was taken from workers welfare promotion fund (DPKP) allocated at Rp 150 billion. The DPKP itself originated from 5 percent of PT Jamsostek’s profit of 2010 amounting to Rp 1.5 trillion. Mean while the total asset managed by PT Jamsostek at the moment was worth Rp 100 trillion. “ I hope the head of state would inaugurate these seven apartment blocks by end of year” Harbonar remarked.

Ten twin blocks of apartments could accommodate 8000 workers. Jamsostek members at Kepri numbered 250,000 people. Batam’s mayor Dahlan stated that Batam still needed 75 twin blocks of Rusunawa by 2012 to cope with population growth. By 2009 there were already 52 blocks, by 2010 ten twin blocks would be built, in this year 2011 15 twin blocks would be buit. So by 2012 there would be 75 twin blocks in existence.

Meanwhile Chris explained that when KTTB was developed 20 years ago, the area was still swamps. Kepri’s potential was great including the Natuna gas project expected as supporting factor. KTTB was 500 hectares wide, had sizable water reservoir to supply water for the industry. The management of KTTB also facilitated workers’ need in this 10 hectare space. 27 towers would soon be built.

Plywood Producers in East Kalimantan Unable to Meet Japan’s Demand

Plywood producers in east Kalimantan were having a landslide of order from Japan, who after the tsunami disaster were in need of plywood in enormous quantity for reconstruction. Price of plywood jumped up to USD 900 per cube M, a price record never reached before. Taufik, manager of the association of Indonesian wood producers stated in Jakarta.

Regretfully the big demand could not be fulfilled by plywood producers in west Kalimantaan. The main problem was the raw material. The best kind of wood to be processed was Meranti, but this type of wood was scarce and producers found it hard to get supply. Meranti wood could be substituted with Sengon wood quality was not the same. The USD 900 was the price for Meranti wood while Sengon wood was cheaper.

Data of Apkindo had it that demand for Indonesia wood for post-disaster rebuilding projects in Japan rose by 30%, but Indonesia wood exporters were unable to fulfill. Maximum capacity of Indonesian wood export to Japan was only 10% of total need of plywood in Japan. The demand for plywood in Japan was 8 million cube M while Indonesia could only supply 1 million cube M.

In Indonesia’s timber industry today, there were only 40 companies still operating another 90 companies had stop operations due to shortage of raw materials, or mis-management, or crisis etc. as Indonesia were unable to fulfill this great demand. China and Malaysia would grab the opportunity.

Government Launch Cash For Workers Labor Intensive Program After Mount Merapi Disaster

The Director General of Cipta Karya, Ministry of Public Works (PU) was launching a Labor intensive program known as Cash for Work (CPW) for post disaster management of Mt. Merapi eruption. The program was part of National Program of National Empowerment (PNPM) Mandiri Urban, aimed at improving the socio economy system, infra structure and general facilities.

Unlike the previous PNPM Urban Mandiri plan, in this PNPM Mt Merapi post disaster management plan workers were earning CWP of income for the works done, whereby they can use money to restart their business “after the emergency stage there were some sort of transition period where the people are motivated, especially the victims of disaster” Budiyuwono, Director General of cipta karya told the press in Jakarta on Thursday.

CPW activities were focused on efforts of emergency cleaning and repairs of damaged infra structure and public facilities, public utilities, installation and maintenance of water supply system, road cleaning, irrigation repairs and rehabilitation of agricultural areas.

Since the beginning of campaign on February 2011 to April 12, 2011 fund liquidation of people’s direct aid to the board of people’s independence (BKM) had reached Rp 4,7 billion (89,7%) of the total 5,24 billion. Meanwhile the number of workers employed numbered 42,937 people originating from 12 districts of sleman regency, 13 districts of Yogyakarta city and 14 districts of the magelang regency.

In the execution of this cash for work campaign, the people would be accompanied and guided by the management unit, to make clean up and repairs of public utilities. The next step was rehabilitation and reconstruction carried out by community based rehabilitation team (Rekompak).

The role Rekompak was to accompany the people to reconstruct damaged houses, numbering 2,613 homes in the Province of Yogyakarta and 128 homes in the entire central java province and to rehabilitate infra structure of the settlements in 88 villages/districts spread out in the regency of sleman, klaten, Boyolali and magelang.

So far rehabilitation of 55 houses had been accomplished, repairs of the rest had not begun as there were still some task due in mapping out rehabilitation areas to be done by the Provicial Government.

“if mapping out were completed, target was set to continue the entre prohect gradually by next year, as expected by the people” Budiyuwono concluded.