East Kalimantan receives mining documents

The East Kalimantan administration could materialize its wish to manage its own natural resources following the handover of mining documents from the central government, Koran Tempo reported on Wednesday.

The documents were symbolically handed over to East Kalimantan Governor Suwarna AF by Director General of Mineral Resources Geology Wimpy S. Tjetjep on behalf of Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Wimpy said the handover of documents from his ministry to East Kalimantan was the first of its kind, and it should be followed up by other ministries or agencies in the central government to handover their documents and power to local administrations.

He hoped that the East Kalimantan administration could use the documents to improve itself to better manage its natural resources.

Responding to Wimpy's statement, Suwarna said that he would instruct his subordinates to study the content of the documents so that the administration would be able to invite more investors to do mining in the province.

Nevertheless, Suwarna said that his administration would first of all prioritize mining contractors working in the province to take up mining works in the area.

Meanwhile, Kutai Kertanegara (East Kalimantan) regent Syaukani, who was also on hand at the document handover ceremony, said that the handover of mining documents to the East Kalimantan administration should give more meaning to increased local autonomy, as guaranteed by the regional autonomy laws.

"The central government should not anymore be haft-hearted to implement regional autonomy," said Syaukani, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Regencies Association. (*)