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ll future infrastructure projects must follow environmental sustainability standards that will be set out in a new government regulation (PP), which is currently being drafted at the Environment Ministry, an official has said.

The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) is working on the environmental sustainability standards with the help of officials from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

Bappenas deputy chairman Lukita Dinarsyah Tuwo said on Tuesday that the new regulation was a follow-up to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (KLHS), an environmental assessment that regional administrations have to carry out before issuing permits for land or forest management, as stipulated in Law No. 32/2009 on environmental management and protection.

The purpose of the KLHS is to ensure that every governmental program, policy or construction project adopts sustainable and environmentally friendly development principals.

'€œAll MP3EI projects should be evaluated with the KLHS after the PP is signed because the government has asserted there is to be no trade-off between economic growth and environmental sustainability,'€ Lukita said, referring to the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI).

Environmental assessments, which were introduced in June 2013, are part of the MP3EI'€™s Connectivity Working Group efforts to apply environmental considerations into the revised MP3EI via Presidential Instruction No. 48/2014.

All stakeholders are involved in conducting the assessments, including local government administrations, NGOs and universities, while discussions are also held to gain insights from environmental experts and local practitioners.

Assessments have been conducted on policy in all economic corridors, which have some areas of concern such as Greater Jakarta, Java'€™s northern coastal highway (Pantura), Manado in North Sulawesi, southern Bali and Sorong in Papua.

Lukita added that Bappenas and DANIDA would be discussing the KLHS and the wider issue of sustainable development with all relevant state institutions and regional administrations.

New Danish Ambassador to Indonesia Casper Klynge said his staff would be glad to share Denmark'€™s experiences as a world leader in developing green or environmentally friendly infrastructure.

Klynge said Denmark had been successful in maintaining both economic growth and protecting the environment due to a set of high green standards as well as strict legislation, which were often criticized by the country'€™s private sector.

'€œPrivate-sector players in Denmark always say that our legislation is too rigid, but we have managed to become one of the world'€™s leaders in green technology and infrastructure. So, at the end of the day, legislation matters,'€ he said. (gda)