Senior government officials opened an international conference on tobacco control on the resort island of Bali on Thursday with the message that Indonesia must reduce its tobacco consumption to protect its younger generations.

The statement comes as the country continues to make headlines over its lax tobacco regulations, with the latest scandal involving a 2-year-old baby from Sukabumi, West Java, who smokes 40 cigarettes a day.

Tobacco consumption could prevent the country from reaping the benefits of its demographic bonus that was predicted to peak in 2030, National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head Bambang Brodjonegoro said in his opening speech at the 12th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health in Nusa Dua.

Bambang said that the prevalence of smoking among people under 18 years of age had increased each year, with Indonesia expected to see its working age population reach its largest share of the overall population by 2030.

“The prevalence was 8.8 percent in 2016, and is predicted to grow to 10.7 percent by 2019. If we do nothing about it, the number will grow to 15 percent by 2024 and 16 percent by 2030,” Bambang said.

“Our young, productive population would be in danger if 16 percent of them are smokers and even more are exposed to second-hand smoke. [This would mean] less productivity and a decreased contribution to economic growth,” he added.

Bappenas, he said, fully supported tobacco control, as it was in line with the country’s mission to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDG). The agency, he added, was hoping to include tobacco control in the country’s 2020 to 2024 development plan.

One of the plans, he said, was to find alternative job opportunities for farmers and laborers who worked in the tobacco industry.

Health Minister Nila Moeloek echoed Bambang’s concern, saying that cigarettes were still cheap enough to attract children and poor people to smoking.

The minister called on the government to significantly increase the price of cigarettes through an excise in order to decrease the prevalence of smoking.

“It is important to shift from a price-based tobacco policy solution to an affordability-based solution,” Nila said, noting that the excise increase should be aimed at ensuring people stopped buying cigarettes.

Data collected in 2016 by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance shows that the price of popular cigarette brands in Indonesia stood at US$1.49 on average, much cheaper than Singapore ($9.62), Brunei Darussalam ($5.10), Malaysia ($4.17) and Thailand ($3.28).

Nila warned that the country’s leading causes of death were tobacco-related non-communicable diseases such as heart problems, tuberculosis, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.

This year, the government, through the Finance Ministry, decided to raise tobacco excise by 10 percent. Antitobacco activists, however, believed that it would be more effective if the excise was increased by up to 57 percent.

Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise, meanwhile, said the use of tobacco was a violation of human rights.

“We encourage parents to smoke outside their houses. We have to work very hard to push the government, communities and parents because we are all responsible for looking after our children,” she said.

Indonesia is currently the only country in the Asia Pacific that has not ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) — the only international public health treaty in the 21st century. The FCTC, which has been enforced since 2005, is a global framework from the WHO that mandates stringent rules on tobacco production, taxation, marketing, advertising, sponsorship and sales.

Even though 180 countries have ratified the convention, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has insisted that Indonesia does not have to follow others.

“I don’t want [to sign or ratify the FCTC] simply because many other countries have,” Jokowi said in 2016.

Asked how soon the government would ratify the convention, Nila said, “Ask the government [President Jokowi]. I can’t answer that question at the moment, but I can make sure that we’re on our way to that.”

“We’ve ratified the convention on the rights of children. We should also ratify the FCTC in order to better fulfil our children’s rights in the future,” Yohana said.

According to its website, the Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health is “the flagship conference for tobacco control in the region”.

The conference in Bali has drawn protests from a number of groups claiming to represent tobacco farmers and the kretek (clove cigarette) community in the country.

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