"The mining sector needs a lot of investments."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An official with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) believes Indonesia`s future lies in various regional product exports, such as tourism, agriculture, industries and others.
"Indonesia`s future lies in those regions which are rich in export products," deputy Kadin chief for banking and financial affairs Rosan P Roeslani said here on Saturday.
Rosan noted that regions must be encouraged to conduct trade, not only at home, but also abroad.
Further, export-oriented small-scale businesses needed to be innovative so that their products would maintain a competitive edge, Rosan said.
Additionally, products offered by financial institutions, including commercial banks, could not yet be fully used to solve these problems, he added.
"Kadin has been conducting periodic training and promotion of export procedures for would-be business players in the form of e-business clinics," he said.
It also provides capital assistance or project guarantees through financing institutions formed by Kadin, such as PT Palapa Fund, Rosan said.
The Palapa Fund is one of Kadin`s priority programs to develop the country`s regional economies, particularly with regard to the utilization of each region`s potentials, he said.
Based on Central Board of Statistics (BPS) data, the country`s exports, through September 2012, reached US$143 billion, declining 6.06 percent compared with the same period last year.
The BPS data also showed that Indonesia`s export value in August 2012 fell to US$4.12 billion, decreasing by 12.27 percent from the previous month and 24.30 percent from August 2011.
Non-oil and gas exports in August this year were reported at US$11.26 billion, down 14.49 percent from July 2012 and 22.62 percent from August 2011.
Cumulatively, the Indonesian export value during the January-August 2012 period was US$127.17 billion, down 5.58 percent from the same period last year. Non-oil and gas exports also shrank by 5.58 percent compared with last year`s figures, reaching only US$101.23 billion in 2012.
In the meantime, Kadin deputy chairman for Trade, Distribution and Logistics Affairs Natsir Mansyur stated that it will be difficult for the government to achieve its export target of US$230 billion this year if mineral exports remain stagnant.
"We know that mineral and mining companies have been unable to carry out their export operations since May because the government has banned it," he said.
This followed the energy and mineral resources minister issuing Decree No. 7/2012 on mineral processing and purification, banning the export of minerals and other mining products.
"Although the Supreme Court (MA) has cancelled some parts of the decree`s articles, no technical regulation on the trading of the mineral products has been issued to that effect, so far," Natsir pointed out.
He noted that businesses were facing problems after the imposition of the decree, which turned out to contradict Law No. 32/2004 on regional autonomy and Law No. 4/2009 on mineral and coal mining.
"The mining sector needs a lot of investments, including in infrastructure development at mining sites, which must come from the companies themselves," Natsir said.
He stated that the ban since May on mineral exports had led to a significant drop in the country`s overall exports.
(Uu.A014/INE/KR-BSR/H-AK)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
