Deputy Minister of Investment Yuliot Tanjung said the government has planned to grant import facilities for agricultural company as part of the measures to accelerate sugar and bioetanol self-sufficiency in Merauke regency, South Papua.
The minister said the import tax free facility in agricultural sector is given mainly for plantation mechanization in the context of food and energy resilience.
”There is no machine and equiment import facility for agricultural sector. Currently , they have to pass through the normal mechanism, i.e. pay the import duty,” Yuliot said during a coordinating meeting of the Task Force for the acceleration of sugar and bioetanol self-sufficiency in Merauke regency, South Papua, held at the Ministry of Investment/Investment Coordinating Board in Jakarta on Friday, July 19, 2024.
Yuliot said the development of sugar cane investment and sugar industry in Merauke are promising. Currently, the development of third cluster of sugar cane plantation in Merauke regency is ongoing.
”It has been planned that in the development of third cluster of sugar industry, five sugar factories will be built and be integrated with bio-ethanol. Business actors have provided infrastructures and funding for training in Merauke regency so the people can get involved. Besides, the Indonesia Research Center for Sugar Plantation has been established in cooperates with Sugar Research Australia,” Yuliot said.
He appreciated the seriousness of the company in implementing its invesment plan.
”We have seen how they prepare the facilites. The standard they set is better than the existing facility in Australia. So we see the seriousness of the business,” he added.
Total investment plan for third cluster of self sufficient of sugar and bioethanol integrated sugar cane plantation in Merauke is planned at US$ 5.62 billion (Rp83.27 trillion). The investment consists of sugar cane plantation with agricultural technology mechanization of US$ 1.8 billion, the development of five sugar and bioethanol factories at US$ 3.32 billion, the development of human resource training center at US$ 7.4 million and reasearch and inovation facilities at US$9.2 million per year.
Based on the Presidential Decree No. 15 /2024 on the Acceleration of Sugar and Bioethanol Task Forece in Merauke Regency, South Papua Province issued on April 19, 2024, the task force is tasked to accelerate investment facilities for sugar cane commodity integrated with sugar, bioethnol industry, biomass power plant in Merauke regency, South Papua. There are five clusters of 2 million hectares that will become the development area for self-sufficient sugar industry integrated with bioethanol. The first and second clusters have 1 million hectares of land, while the third cluster has 504,373 hectares and the fourth cluster 400,000 hectares of land.
