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Jakarta Post

PM Najib offers RI haze know-how

As the government struggles to contain relentless fires, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Sunday after meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in Bogor, West Java, that he would invite Indonesian representatives to visit the haze-choked neighboring country to exchange ideas on fire containment

Haeril Halim and Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Pekanbaru
Mon, October 12, 2015

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PM Najib offers RI haze know-how

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s the government struggles to contain relentless fires, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Sunday after meeting with President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo in Bogor, West Java, that he would invite Indonesian representatives to visit the haze-choked neighboring country to exchange ideas on fire containment.

Malaysia was also ready to share its success in reducing haze problems, the prime minister said.

Najib made the remarks following the dispatch on Sunday of a Bombardier CL-415 to join Indonesian and other international haze crisis forces to water bomb badly affected South Sumatra, where the majority of hot spots have been detected.

'€œYesterday the government of Malaysia sent a plane to Indonesia to help with the haze crisis handling,'€ Najib said after his meeting with Jokowi, as quoted by Antara news agency.

In addition, Najib vowed to give more aid in the near future to help the haze team contain land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan '€” which have also affected Malaysia, with the country blanketed with haze over recent months '€” in a number of sectors including health, the economy and transportation.

Najib said that Malaysia would cooperate with the Indonesian government to send an Indonesian team to the neighboring country to observe how Malaysia had built a canal system to prevent land and forest fires in the country.

The two leaders also agreed to establish a Council of Palm-Oil Producing Countries (CPOP). Indonesia, which has 4 million oil-palm farmers, and Malaysia, with 500,000 oil-palm farmers, together produce 85 percent of the world'€™s palm oil.

Sunday'€™s meeting also marked the leaders'€™ agreement to form a New Global Standard for Sustainable Palm-Oil Production and Green Economic Zone.

Meanwhile, Indonesian and Malaysian citizens have exchanged a satirical war of words over the haze on Twitter, with the latter blaming the inability of the Indonesian government to tackle the haze problem on its own land, despite the fact that a number of Malaysian pulp companies operating in Indonesia have been suspected of being among the land burners in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, who accompanied Jokowi during the meeting, said the President had expressed his appreciation over the Malaysian government'€™s offer of its technology and expertise on haze solutions.

'€œIf the system is good and cheap, then it can be combined with the canal system that has earlier been suggested by the Indonesian government,'€ Rizal said at Bogor Palace after the meeting.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that seven helicopters '€” six owned by the BNPB and one from Singapore '€” and four planes water bombed the areas of Ogan Komering Ilir and Musi Banyuasin in South Sumatra on Sunday.

Sutopo said that Malaysia would decide whether to extend the operation of its helicopter until Oct. 16, while Singaporean Chinook helicopters, which can carry 5 tons of water at a time, will help the Indonesian team on the field until Oct. 23.

'€œThe Australian team [arrived] in Palembang on Sunday and it is predicted that a Thor type of Hercules L-100 plane, which has a capacity of 15 tons of water, will arrive in the area on Tuesday or Wednesday.

'€œThe plane will operate for a total of five days,'€ Sutopo said, adding that more aircraft from other countries would follow suit.

Meanwhile, data from the BNPB revealed on Sunday that as many as 322,676 people in the country suffered from acute respiratory tract infections because of the smoke from the unremitting fires, comprising 52,582 Riau residents, 69,734 people in Jambi, 83,484 in South Sumatra, 43,477 in West Kalimantan, 44,024 in Central Kalimantan and 29,105 in South Kalimantan.

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