Major firms launch initiative to fight malnutrition in kids

Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/14/2011

The Indonesian government welcomed on Monday a public private partnership (PPP) initiative to fight malnutrition in Indonesian children called Project Laser Beam (PLB), which is supported by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and several globally renowned enterprises.

The secretary of the Office of the Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister, Indroyono Soesilo, said the initiative was critical to help the country end child hunger and poverty, particularly in East Nusa Tenggara and Papua, two of the poorest provinces.

“The government of Indonesia is committed to lifting people out of poverty and giving every Indonesian child a healthy start in life. PLB will kick off very soon under the coordination of my office,” he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta.

He expressed his gratitude to Unilever, Kraft Foods, DSM and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) as well as to three local companies — PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera, GarudaFood and Indofood – for their participation in PLB.

“PLB is a creative new pillar in the fight to end child malnutrition, which we believe will be a major contributor to attain the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs],” said Indroyono who is also a candidate for the Food and Agriculture Organization’s director general for the 2012-2015 period.

PLB is a five-year, US$50 million project that aims to eradicate child malnutrition. The initial focuses of the initiative will be Indonesia and Bangladesh where child malnutrition rates are unacceptably high.

In Indonesia, more than 37 percent of under fives go to bed hungry, while in Bangladesh, the rate reaches 48 percent.

Pradeep Pant, Asia Pacific president director of Kraft Foods, said his company contributed around $10 million to the initiative. He elaborated that PLB would cover programs, such as teaching locals about sustainable farming, assisting them to create micro enterprises and providing nutrition education to mothers and children.

“In my opinion, this initiative is likely to succeed because it has three required pillars, which are sustainability, big scale and conducted repeatedly,” he said.

Unilever chief executive officer Paul Polman argued that participating in the initiative was very important for his company’s business. Ending child malnutrition and preparing children to be healthier and more prosperous in the future would be a way for the company to expand its market.

“Our business won’t work if the market doesn’t work,” he said.

The continued commitment of Unilever, Kraft Foods and several new local and international partners demonstrated confidence that the world was on the right track in fighting hunger in a new and innovative way, said the director for public policy, communications and private partnerships of WFP, Nancy Roman.

“When the government and businesses work together, we can do more than what we can do individually,” she said.

RI gives agricultural training to developing counties

Antare News, Thu, April 7 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Agriculture officers of five developing countries are taking part in a two-week long training and apprenticeship program which opened in West Java`s resort area of Lembang on Thursday.

Retno LP Marsudi. (kemlu)

Director General of America and Europe at the Foreign Ministry Retno Marsudi opened the event held jointly with the Agriculture Ministry.

The event consists of international training on fruit and vegetable post-harvest technology for Asia Pacific countries and apprenticeship program for Comoros farmers.

The five countries are Bangladesh, Fiji, Laos, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste.

In her address Retno said the two activities were one of the manifestations of the Indonesian government`s commitment to help develop the agriculture sector of fellow developing countries.

"The agricultural sector is the important asset of Indonesia`s soft power diplomacy and for more than three decades Indonesia has played an active role in facilitating the exchange of experience in the agricultural sector through training, apprenticeship and dispatch of skilled workers to various counties in Asia and the Pacific and Africa," she said.

She expressed her belief that developing countries could contribute to improving the global food security which currently came under the spotlight from the international community.

Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry Hari Priyono meanwhile said the government`s policies on national food security had yielded fruits with the attainment of self-reliance in rice in 2008.

"The agricultural sector is a strategic sector in the Indonesian economy and the Indonesian government will always try to meet the national consumption needs to ensure the public access to foodstuffs which constitutes one of human beings` basic rights." he said.

"Through the two activities the Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry expects that the participants could improve their technical competence so that it could be applied to support the development of the agricultural sector in their respective country," he said.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

CN-235 to be displayed at expo Indonesia 2010 in Bangladesh

Antara News, Tuesday, April 20, 2010 19:54 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - CN-235, a product of Indonesia`s strategic airplane industry PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI), will be displayed at Expo Indonesia 2010 in Bangladesh on May 11 to 13, 2010.

Indonesian ambassador in Dhaka Zet Mirzal Zainuddin said the exhibition will display various export products of strategic and non-strategic industries in Indonesia.

Some of the products of strategic industries included CN-235 of PT DI, military vehicles and equipment of PT PINDAD, and railway coaches of PT INKA.

The automotive products also to be displayed at the event will include multi purpose vehicles like Suzuki APV, Toyota Avanza, and GT products.

Expo Indonesia 2010 will have the theme "Integrated Expo 2010: Discover Indonesia, the Beauty Unlimited".

Thai PTTEP quits two Indonesian, Bangladesh projects

Reuters, Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:41pm EDT

BANGKOK, March 18 (Reuters) - Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTE.BK) said on Wednesday it had decided to withdraw from two petroleum exploration projects in Indonesia and Bangladesh.

The two projects are Indonesia Merangin 1 and Bangladesh 17 and 18, where the potential for commercial discoveries was deemed low after exploration, it told the stock exchange in a statement.

PTTEP, which holds a 40 percent stake in the project and owns two other exploration projects in Indonesia, Bengara-1 and Semai II, said its withdrawal was subject to approval from the Indonesian authorities.

PTTEP has a 30 percent participation interest in the Bangladesh project.

A Bangladeshi official said on Tuesday that France's Total SA (TOTF.PA) and four partners, including PTTEP, had abandoned their rights to explore in the two offshore blocks. [ID:nDHA501448] ($1 =35.76 Baht) (Reporting by Ploy Chitsomboon; Editing by Alan Raybould)

South Korea current largest buyer at trade expo

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta 

South Korea is currently the largest buyer of this year's Indonesian Trade Expo with a total transaction volume of US$4 million. 

Algeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh follow closely with US$2.9 million, $1.5 million and $1.2 million respectively, tempointeraktif.com reported on Saturday. 

The 23rd Expo, held at the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran, kicked off to a slow start on Tuesday and will close later today. 

The expo has so far only raked in $32.3 million, way below the total targetted volume of $220 million. 

Last year's event reaped $200 million. 

The organizing committee said 2,300 foreign buyers from 108 countries participated at the trade expo, which exhibits Indonesia's leading export products, including furniture, electronics, shoes, textiles and garments as well as commodities coffee, cocoa and rubber. 

"Perhaps more sales will take place today as it is the last day of the expo," chief expo organizer and head of the National Export Development Board Bachrul Chairi said. 

Furniture is still the highest generating product, raking a total of $8.1 million or 25.2 percent of the total transaction value to date. 

Mining products and crude palm oil follow second and third, each generating $7.3 million and $5.8 million.

Lampung exports 249,728 tons of non-oil commodities to Pakistan

Bandarlampung, Lampung Province (ANTARA News) - Lampung province exported at least 249,728 tons of non-oil/non-gas commodities to Pakistan from January to July 2007, a local official said.

Lampung earned a total of US$20,360 in foreign exchange from the exports, Suparmo of the Lampung trade, industry and cooperatives office said here.

The exports had increased by 91.43 percent in value and by 93.05 tons in volume compared to the figures on the same period last year, he said.

Lampung exported among other things coal and sodium cyclamate to Pakistan. PT Bukit Asam Mining Company (PTBA) exported 37,873 tons of coal worth US$1.7 million, while PT Golden Sari exported sodium cyclamate amounting to 227 tons worth US$557,250 to Pakistan last July alone.

In addition to Pakistan, Lampung also exports non-oil/non-gas commodiies to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nepal, he said.