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New measures to speed up power projects, stabilize meat supply
Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution speaks at a press conference to announce the ninth economic policy package in Jakarta on Wednesday evening
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Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution speaks at a press conference to announce the ninth economic policy package in Jakarta on Wednesday evening. (Courtesy of Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister) (Courtesy of Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister)
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span class="inline inline-center">Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution speaks at a press conference to announce the ninth economic policy package in Jakarta on Wednesday evening. (Courtesy of Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister)
The government has announced the ninth economic package, which is intended to boost the electrical infrastructure, to stabilize meat supply and deregulate logistics.
The government would support state-owned electricity company PLN in achieving the ambitious 35,000 megawatt program, Economic Coordinating Minister Darmin Nasution said in a press release on Wednesday.
The supporting measures include a capital injection, legal assistance such as in dealing with land conflicts, quicker processing of license procedures as well as the formation of a new company to ensure the supply of primary energy sources.
"We want to reach an electrification ratio of 97.2 percent by 2019. With the ratio currently standing at 87.5 percent, the electric infrastructure needs to grow by 8.8 percent per year according to the economic growth assumption of 6 percent," Darmin said.
He stressed that PLN had to commit to local industries by prioritizing domestic firms as suppliers and contractors in open book procurement processes.
Regarding meat supply, the government plans to further open the import of beef or water buffalo meat and add more countries to the list of potential countries from where to source imports, beyond the main supplier countries like Australia and New Zealand.
"In 2016, national demand reached 674,690 tons, equal to 3.9 million head of cattle. That demand could not be met [domestically], since national production is just 2.5 million head per year. That leaves a deficit of 1.4 million head or 235,160 tons, which needs to be filled with imports," Darmin said.
The minister added that deregulation of the logistic sector was aimed at improving connectivity from villages to cities. Among other measures, the government plans to remove Communications and Information Ministry Regulation No. 9/2015, which states that commercial postal services must be more expensive than universal postal services. By removing this rule, private postal services like JNE and Tiki will be allowed to operate at the same price with state postal services.
Furthermore, billing and payments for port services will be integrated in an electronic system to speed up processing.
An electronic port system is to be developed to better manage port activities, such as yard planning, customs procedures, delivery orders, trucking and billing. The system, called 'inaportnet', will be integrated with the so-called national single window, which handles export and import documents.
The government plans to make the use of rupiah mandatory in transportation activities, because the conversion of US dollars to rupiah in the current dollar transactions is higher than the Bank Indonesia exchange rate.
As another element of the latest economic policy package, the government aims to create synergies with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in building a creative economy. SOEs will support the development of domestic creative products with high potential, such as furniture, Muslim clothing, traditional food, jewelry and movies. (bbn)(+)
