Indonesia Agrees With Bringing Forward Sub-Regional Meeting On Haze

JAKARTA, June 27 (Bernama) -- Indonesia has agreed to the proposal to bring forward the meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution, in Kuala Lumpur to July 15-17. It was originally scheduled for Aug 20-21. Natural Resources and Environment Minister G. Palanivel said Indonesian Environment Minister Dr Balthasar Kambuaya had verbally agreed to bring the meeting forward, when the two of them met at the latter's office here, Thursday. The Malaysian minister has called on his Indonesian counterpart to discuss on cooperation to overcome the haze problem currently affecting Malaysia, which was contributed by the forest and peat fires in Riau, Sumatra. Smoke from the fires for the past one week has badly affected several states in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. During the meeting, Palanivel and Balthasar also discussed on ratification of the Asean Agreement on Transboundry Haze Pollution (CO5) by Indonesia, the only country in Asean which has not ratified the agreement. It is understood that Indonesia is in the process of ratifying the agreement. -- BERNAMA