GOVT FAVORING FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN INDUSTRIAL CROP FORESTS : MINISTER

Jakarta, March 6 (ANTARA) - The government will accommodate the needs and facilitate the entry of prospective foreign investment in industrial crop forests (HTIs) in the country because such investments have bright prospects, Forestry Minister MS Ka'ban said.

The minister made the statement after witnessing the signing of an MoU by the Wana Nusantara Housing Cooperative (KPWN), PT Korea Indonesia Forest Cooperation (KIFC), state forestry company Perum Perhutani and the Korea Forest Service on a project to develop 500 hectares of industrial crop forests in Indonesia.
He said the MoU which was a followup to an agreement reached by the Indonesian and South Korean governments previously should be implemented as soon as possible.
The minister said the development of each hectare of industrial crop forest would take an investment of Rp12 million.
Ka'ban on the occasion also handed permits to utiilize the yields of timber estates to two South Korean timber estate companies, namely PT Taiyoung Engreen and PT Inni Joa.
Indonesia's and South Korea's forestry ministries recently signed an agreement on the provision of 500,000 hectares of forest area in Indonesia for the development of industrial crop estates.
But Hadisusanto Pasaribu, an expert at Indonesia's forestry ministry, said the total area of forest land South Korean investors would like to develop as industrial crop forests was actually 564,000 hectares.
Out of a number of South Korean companies that had applied for permission to develop industrial forests in Indonesia, only two had so far been given such permits covering a total concession area of 60,000 hectares, Pasaribu said.
In the meantime, the forestry business division director of Korindo Group, Kim Hoon, said the investment climate in Indonesia, especially for forest-related business, had improved.