S. Korea, Indonesia Develop Environmentally Friendly Businesses

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia and South Korea are developing environmentally friendly small-medium enterprises (SMEs) or green businesses that emphasize efforts to reduce emissions in product processing.

SMEs should participate in cutting industrial emissions by implementing environmentally friendly technologies, Deputy for Organization at the Cooperatives and SME Ministry Meliadi Sembiring said on Tuesday.

"The SME sector is expected to be more creative and innovative to be able to survive competition and run their businesses in environmentally friendly ways," Meliadi said at the opening of the first Indonesia-Korea Green Business Forum.

The Indonesia-Korea Business Forum is the first event held by the Green Business Center (GBC) with the support of the ASEM SMEs Eco Innovation Center (ASEIC) of South Korea and the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs.

"Green Business Center is an institutional form of cooperation between Indonesia and South Korea and it serves as a business incubator for SMEs both in Indonesia and Korea. GBC is dedicated to incubating, consulting, and assisting SMEs in developing business and industry so as to accelerate the pace of business potential through green business innovation," Meliadi explained.

As of now, there are 11 tenants under the GBC, three of them Indonesian companies and eight Korean, according to Meliadi.

The three Indonesian companies are PT Sumber Makmur Petra (coal and concrete mix), KOSPERMINDO - ASPERLI (seaweed processing enterprises), and PT Multi Coco Indonesia (coconut processing business).

"The purpose of this forum is to increase the commitment and participation of SMEs and increase their knowledge, concept and application of environmentally friendly industries," Meliadi said.

Meanwhile, a Korean representative for the Indonesia-Korea Joint Secretariat for Economic Development Jang-jean Kang said the forum is very important as a platform to exchange information related to environmentally friendly industries between the two countries.

"The governments policy for the development of environmentally friendly industries is very important. Korea has for a long time been applying it, and finally has turned from being a poor country to become one of the major industrial countries in the world," Kang said.

Indonesia is the fourth largest carbon dioxide emission-generating country in the world, Jang-jean said, and hoped that it would, therefore, make its industries more environmentally friendly.

"We managed to overcome environmental problems by always emphasizing to companies to produce environmentally friendly products and reduce pollution," Kang said.

The Korean government has a budget of US$5.3 trillion Won for implementing its green business program, while Indonesias budget is much smaller.

Therefore, cooperation to reduce industrial emissions, according to him, should continue to be expanded and developed.

ANTARA