Mining companies no need to worry about regional autonomy: official

Mining companies do not have to worry that the regional government would ask them to repeat their environmental impact assessment work although it had been completed and approved by the central government, director general of mining Surna T. Djajadiningrat said.

Surna said that the central government would "communicate and make coordination" with the regional government to avoid the above concern from happening.

Surna made the comments amid worries among mining companies that their final environmental impact assessment work would be asked by the regional government to be repeated again once the regional autonomy policy is implemented early next year.

The regional autonomy policy gives provincial and regent administration a greater power to govern their areas.

Some mining companies have delayed their plans to implement the environmental impact assessment study due to the above concern. They reason that the rather than implementing the process twice, it was better to delay it. They also said that the environmental impact assessment work was costly.

But Surna was convinced that the final environmental impact assessment report which had been approved by the central government would not be revised again.

He said that it was important to show to the world that the regional autonomy policy would be implemented properly. (R. Amoros)