Indonesia Asks Malaysia to Fight Against Palm Oil Black Campaign

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi urged Malaysia and Thailand to together fight against the discriminative European resolution on the palm oil export. She said it at the Indonesia Malaysia Thailand - Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) summit in the sideline of the 30th ASEAN Summit in Manila.

Minister Retno revealed that Indonesian palm oil production has lately been receiving negative campaign. “The latest example is the discriminative European parliament resolution on palm oil,” she said Saturday, April 29.

Retno invited Thailand to join the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) that was previously formed by Indonesia and Malaysia to fight against black campaigns on palm oil done by many parties.

The partnership in the IMT-GT regions harnesses a large potential which is worth US$ 416 billion and equals to 18.3 percent of the ASEAN overall trade. This potential will likely be strengthened by the 6.9 percent economic growth throughout 2010-2015. “This is quite a large number,” Retno said.

On another note, the region’s total population equates to 81 million people or 13 percent of the total ASEAN population. Based on the total population, there is 38.3 million or 12.2 percent of the total ASEAN labor force. In addition to the region’s profitable natural environment conditions.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to Retno, had also mentioned about the need to fight back against the black campaigns. The IMT-GT summit was attended by President Jokowi, Malaysian PM Malaysia Najib Razak, and Thai PM Prayuth Chan-o-cha.

AMIRULLAH SUHADA