VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya has asked the Minister of Trade to revise Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 31 of 2016 concerning Provisions on the Import of Non-Hazardous and Toxic Waste to prevent the entry of illegal imported plastic waste.

"If it is not legal, surely that is the aspect for supervision. We do expect a lot from Customs, but in terms of prevention we have asked the Minister of Trade to revise trade ministerial regulation No 31 of 2016," Siti said on Monday.

"This has also been discussed several times at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. I have already sent a letter to the Minister of Trade, and the Ministry is processing the revision of the Trade Ministerial Regulation," said Siti.

"The Trade Ministerial Regulation must be more specific, considering the definition of garbage, plastic and paper has been long-debated with the ministries of industry and trade," she said.

During this time, she continued, import permits were issued from the Ministry of Trade and recommendations were received from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

This is not the first time Indonesia has witnessed the illegal entry of plastic waste. In 2015-2016, some 40 containers were returned to their home countries by Indonesian government.

Environmental activist from Bali Fokus, Mochamad Adi Septiono, also said that Indonesia should anticipate the impact of China's National Sword policy, which strictly limits the import of plastic waste. China previously took in 45.1 percent of the world's waste, but since March 2018 it has limited imports of garbage.

"The garbage produced by countries such as America is usually sent to China, now that China has implemented its policy, ASEAN countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, are being targeted," he said. (ant) 

Indonesia will re-export illegal plastic waste entering the country, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya said, following news of the illegal import of plastic waste in Gresik, East Java.

"The waste that enters Indonesia, which has plastic, is definitely not legal. And basically the provisions are there, therefore we will perform a re-export," Nurbaya said in Jakarta on Monday.

The import of illegal plastic waste is not a new problem. From 2015 to 2016, Indonesia re-exported dozens of containers of plastic waste.

According to Nurbaya, the steps for re-exporting are currently being discussed at the level of director general of related ministries, including Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, the Trade Ministry, as well as the Finance Ministry's Customs and Excise Office.

Waste in the form of plastic chips mixed with paper that cannot be recycled, as well as plastic waste whose shapes vary in the form of bottles, sachets, food packaging, personal care and household products, have been found in Gresik.

According to Indonesian Center for Environmental Law researcher Fajri Fadillah, imports of plastic waste in Gresik are prohibited and punishable as crimes, based upon Article 29 Paragraph (1) Letter B, in conjunction with Article 37 Paragraph (1) of Law Number 18 Year 2008 concerning Waste Management.

"Officials must investigate the case of importing plastic waste. In addition, the Trade Minister must revoke import approvals for paper producer importers who do not report the plastic waste they import. Furthermore, applications for import approvals must be reviewed by the Trade Minister by consulting the Environment and Forestry Ministry," Fadillah said.

He also said that the implementation of two rules regarding imported waste, Law Number 18 of 2008 concerning Waste Management and Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 31 / M-DAG / PER / 5/2016 concerning Import of Non-Hazardous and Toxic Waste to control the import of waste, needs to be monitored.

Related news: Minister has waste regulation revised to avoid illegal imports

"The government needs to re-evaluate companies that have plastic and paper scrap import licenses, to learn whether they are acting in accordance with licensing, and whether their practices pollute the environment," Fadillah said.

In 2018, data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed an increase of 141 percent (283,152 tons) in imports of plastic waste in Indonesia.

This figure was the highest for imports of plastic waste in the past 10 years. In 2013, the import of plastic waste was some 124,433 tons. However, the increase in imports is not in balance with export figures, as export figures declined 48 percent (98,450 tons) in 2018.

This figure indicates that there are 184,702 tons of waste still in Indonesia, beyond the burden of domestic waste management in the country itself, Fadillah said.

Environmental activist from Bali Fokus, Mochamad Adi Septiono, also said that Indonesia should anticipate the impact of China's National Sword policy, which strictly limits the import of plastic waste. China previously took in 45.1 percent of the world's waste, but since March 2018 it has limited imports of garbage.

"The garbage produced by countries such as America is usually sent to China, now that China has implemented its policy, ASEAN countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, are being targeted," he said. (ant) 

The Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs is preparing four policies entailing fiscal facilities for development of human resources and finalizing special economic zone regulations to be followed up next week.

Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Susiwijono Moegiarso remarked that the government was pushing to accelerate the Finance Ministerial  Regulation on super deduction tax fiscal incentives for human resource development.

"In connection with the super deduction tax, we are currently pursuing initial settlement in five ministers. It is expected to be completed this week. The president will sign the government regulation and the finance minister has prepared the Financial Ministerial Regulation," Moegiarso noted at the halal bihalal (post-fasting festivities) event at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs in Jakarta on Monday.

Moegiarso explained that industries involved in vocational education programs and conducting R & D activities to produce innovation will be eligible to receive this fiscal incentives.

The second policy pertains to boosting exports to improve Indonesia's trade balance deficit. This is one of the four priority policies being pushed apart from increasing investment, import substitution, and boosting foreign exchange.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution has ordered a special team involving all stakeholders to boost export performance.

Furthermore, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs will review and re-evaluate the application of one-door integrated services known as the Online Single Submission (OSS).

The fourth policy that was immediately completed was a revision of the government regulation for the implementation of special economic zones. In the revision, in addition to tax incentives in the form of tax holidays and tax allowances, the government offers tax breaks on personal income tax for special economic zone in the sectors of services, education, health, and creative economy.

"Hence, it must be clear how private taxpayers' income tax is regulated. For instance, for the special economic zone in the education sector, there are foreign lecturers who come here, what is the income tax imposed on them,  and what kind of policies for specialist doctors," Moegiarso pointed out. (ant) 

Indonesia supports the G20 in improving the global economy and trade digitalization. This was stated by Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita at the time
lead the Indonesian delegation at the Meeting of the Minister of Trade of the G20 Member States held on 8-9 June 2019 in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. 

"This Ministerial Meeting resulted in a major agreement regarding the importance of the role G20 in reducing global trade tensions and giving a positive signal to the world efforts through strong political incentives for improving WTO functions. This agreement is a response to global economic conditions that are declining due to tension "trade between the United States and China is happening now," explained the Trade Minister.

This agreement, continued the Minister of Trade, will be input for the G20 leaders on The G20 Summit is scheduled to take place on 28-29 June 2019 in Osaka,
Japan. In addition, there are three main messages from the Japanese Presidency in this year's G20 Forum, namely first, the need for cooperation between G20 member countries in the trade and investment sectors achieve the goals of global economic growth. Trade and invest ment is a machine the main driver of growth, productivity, innovation, and the provision of employment.

Second, updating rules for regulating subsidies in the industrial sector; and third, the importance of giving direction of the WTO reform issue.  

According to the Minister of Trade, Indonesia views the WTO reform as an important thing to restore the multilateral trading system and restore WTO credibility. "The main thing that becomes the focus and priority now is the dispute settlement mechanism (Dispute Settlement) Mechanism) and selection of members of the Appellate Body. Improved functions negotiations must also focus on unresolved issues in the Doha round such as
agriculture, fisheries, and special and differential treatment, " he said. 

At this G20 Summit, the issue of digital commerce was discussed for the first time. Member States G20 views digital transformation as having an important role in generating opportunities as well challenges for current trade. In this discussion, the Minister of Trade conveyed that Indonesia continued to prioritize its importance to continue to respect the rules and regulations that apply in a country, especially related movement of trade data and information, in supporting growth and economic development.

"Storage and security of strategic data in the country is the main thing. Besides, us also need to pay special attention to those who are economically vulnerable, including small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), so that digital commerce can be utilized for "realize inclusive national economic growth and development," concluded the Trade Minister.

Overview of the G20 

G20 or Group 20 Main Economy was established in 1999. G20 members consist of 19 countries and the European Union. G20 represents 85 percent of world income, 75 percent of world trade, 80 percent of global investment sources, and 66 percent of the world's population Initially the G20 was formed to discuss global economic cooperation as a settlement forum problems (such as economic crises) and agendas to help global growth. But when this, discussion of the G20 issue has increasingly developed into non-financial issues that have an impact on  financial issues such as fiscal, monetary and financial.
The G20 is the main forum for international economic cooperation which continues to strengthen sustainable economic growth. The focus is not only on macroeconomics, but also on issues that affect the global economy such as trade, infrastructure and investment, energy, employment, eradicating corruption, development, agriculture, technology, innovation, and digital economy. (kemendag)