TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua
Despite the President’s pledge to make Indonesia self-sufficient in sugar production, the country remains one of the top sugar importers.
Change Size
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center), PT Prima Alam Gemilang Andi sugar factory owner Syamsuddin Arsyad (left) and former Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman (right) visit a sugar cane plantation in Bombana regency, Southeast Sulawesi, in October 2020. (Presidential Press Bureau/File)
P
resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has established a new task force to accelerate investment in sugarcane plantations in the South Papua regency of Merauke with the aim of boosting the country's bioethanol production.
The decision comes after an internal meeting last December and is formalized through Presidential Decree No. 15/2024, signed on April 19.
"The formation of the task force is also aimed at facilitating business permit [issuance] for business actors in the area," the Cabinet Secretariat said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the decree, Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia is appointed to lead the task force, along with Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar and Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono as deputy chairpersons. They will be supported by undersecretaries from relevant ministries as well as the South Papua governor and Merauke regent, who will join the team as implementing members.
Aside from granting business permits to sugarcane plantations in the area, the task force is responsible for identifying problems in sugar and bioethanol production, ensuring the availability of land for sugarcane plantations, as well as ensuring the necessary facilities for investors looking to get involved.
Read also: Indonesia needs to quadruple sugar output by 2030 for self-sufficiency, ethanol
President Jokowi vowed to make Indonesia self-sufficient in sugar production when he rose to power in 2014. However, nearing the end of his second term in office, the country remains one of the top sugar importers in the world. Incoming shipments provide more than half of the nation’s supply.
