Aspemindo urges House to ask Minister to drop added-value regulation
Tuesday, April 3 2012 - 10:07 AM WIB
The newly set-up Indonesian Mineral Producer Association (Aspemindo) held a hearing session with the House of Representatives? commission VII overseeing mining and environmental affairs on Tuesday. It is the first meeting with the lawmakers since the Aspemindo was officially announced on March 15.
In the meeting, the association urged the lawmakers to summon Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources to ask the latter to withdraw or delay the implementation of Ministerial Decree Number 7/2012 on upgrading the added-value on mineral through processing and refinery.
?We ask the commission VII to summon Minister Jero Wacik regarding regulation on the added-value on mineral,? the association?s chairman Poltak Sitanggang said after the meeting. ?After that, let?s seek solutions on upgrading the added-value on mineral.?
The association can not accept the implementation schedule of May, saying that the miners are not ready to meet such tight target.
He warned that Indonesia could suffer losses of some US$4.5 billion of investment and make 300,000 unemployed if the regulation was forced to be implemented by May.
Editing by Adianto P. Simamora