Governor: Aceh Is Safe For Investment

20 May 2014

Governor Aceh, Zaini Abdullah, welcomed domestic and foreign investment in this province as Aceh is very safe and convenience for it.

“We will seek for domestic and foreign investment for Aceh. Sometimes, misleading news about Aceh threatens our attempt,” the Governor said during the opening of Aceh Investment Promotion in Banda Aceh on Tuesday (20/5).

Governor said that in the past five years, Aceh’s economy performance is very good. On 2013, the realization of investment in Aceh was IDR 5.2 trillion (USD 447million). And for the first quarter of 2014, the realization had reached Rp. 1.5 trillion (USD 129 million), ranked sixth in Indonesia for investment realization.

He said that there are misunderstanding on the condition in Aceh that creates unsecure and not conducive image especially for investment and business.

“The most recent issue is about the implementation of Shari-a Islam that was thought will disturbed Human Rights and security condition to the business world,” he said.

He explained that the implementation of Shari-a Islam in Aceh had gone well and had blend into the people’s culture. The implementation of Shari-a Islam only applies to the Muslim, not for the non-Muslim.

“In fact, the people of Aceh respected and protected the rights of non-Muslim. But the people of Aceh hoped that people that came to this province will respect the people of Aceh’s traditions,” he said.

Security Issue

In regarding to security issue, Zaini Abdullah repeatedly reminds that Aceh is a safe and convenience investment destination. The event was attended by business players that had invested in Aceh for some time.

“We will listen to their experience,” he said.

He added that during an investment forum in Jakarta, in April 2014, the Head of Army Staff (Kasad) General Budiman, said that investment in Aceh is safe and stable.

General Budiman added that the role to protect business investors belongs to Provincial and Regional Government. So, the government should be able to solve the disturbance towards the investors.

“As the Head of Governance in Aceh, I would like to state it again, we are determined to provide security to the investors either domestic or foreign investor in doing business in Aceh,” he said.

On that occasion, Zaini also said that they have conducted various attempts to support and realize investment in Aceh. The main focus of the investment is to create job opportunities that will support the economy development and to improve the people’s prosperity.

Government of Aceh had also come up with several plans such as development of detailed project to support investment and to shift the investment focus from primary focus to secondary and tertiary sector that will add value to the product.

They also planned to develop industrial zone and specialized strategic investment zone to expedite the investment development; development of economy corridor through upstream-downstream that connects to production central.

“We are aiming to prioritize the finalization the development of six lanes of roads in the remote areas of Aceh within the next three years,” he said.

Government of Aceh also prioritizes improvement of investment climate by revising regulations and policies.

“At the moment we had finalized the discussion on general budget through Governor’s decree number 17/2012 and we are finalizing the Governor’s decree on investment incentive,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of Investment and Promotion for Aceh, Ir Iskandar MSc, in his opening speech said that the event’s goal is economy development in the future.

Besides business forum, this event was also used for Aceh’s product exhibition, Iskandar said.

Indonesia Food Security Lag Behind Singapore

26 May 2014

Indonesia lag behind from Singapore and the other South-east Asian countries in term of food security rating for year 2014. The rating was compiled by The Economist and it was made according to three indicators such as: consumer’s purchasing power, food availability and the quality and safety of the food. They recorded Indonesia has several weakness such as in budget for agriculture research, corruption, and gross domestic product.

Gustami Harahap, Lecturer of Agriculture Faculty in Medan Area University (UMA), said that this fact is very disappointing as Indonesia is an agriculture country that had huge natural resources. He said that Indonesia may face food crisis as the food supply in this nation drops from time to time. “As our birth rate is very high, it will automatically affect to food consumption rate. People been moving from villages to the cities, poverty rate has increased, the land that could be cultivated decreased. This is the biggest humanity problem in Indonesia and in the world,” he said during the API (Planter Association Indonesia) seminar on Saturday (24/5).

He believed that Indonesia’s rank was a reflection of internal and external factor. Internal factor correlated with issues such as land conversion, mobilization of work for the farmers and seasonal crops. “The government is not strict enough to set agriculture priority areas, people’s understanding on this issue is decreasing, pressures of life, farmers’ social economy condition and government’s negligence,” he said.

As for external factors, he said that the situation that Indonesia faced is also being affected by free market, revitalization of agriculture and utilization of research and technology. In regarding to free market, he said that although it is important for distribution of food, the farmers may not be able to compete against the pressure of international market. Besides that, he also said that free market and revitalization are usually dominated by several people’s importance such as the companies and government officials that only prioritized themselves.

“Import cases that involve politicians in this country proved that there is something wrong. Trade system in this country is similar to ‘moneylenders’. What is Bulog’s (Indonesian National Logistic Agency) role? They should be the price controller. But now they were the cheap rice distributors. I am confused, had their role changed?” he asked.

In regarding to the utilization of research and technology, he said the availability of supportive equipment at laboratories in Indonesian Universities is far from adequate. He questioned the Research and Technology Institution’s (Litbang) role. Besides that he also questioned the Ministry, Agencies of Agriculture and Plantation’s role that are not good enough. “Government loves discourses, but the implementation is not as good,” he said.

Agriculture Downstream

Gustami Harahap highlighted the importance of agriculture downstream. He said that the government should support the farmers to promote investors to invest in downstream industries. “If the government wanted to increase revenue in real sectors, they should ease the regulations so that the business world could develop. If they only prioritized income from non-real sector such as tax, then poverty and unemployment rate will increase,” he said.

Kasyful Mahalli, economy observer, had similar view to Gustami Harahap. One issue that he wanted to highlight is: the government should come up with master plan and to think about the future of the farmers and the students in agriculture majors. “Students that graduated from agriculture sectors now work at banking, capital market and other sectors. This is because the government could not provide jobs for them. They were also reluctant to become a farmer so they prefer to work in such sectors,” he said.