New government asked to revise mining law

The Association of Indonesian Mining Companies (IMA) called on the incoming new government to put a priority on the revision of the mining law, which is deemed no longer fit to accommodate the new development in the mining industry, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Thursday.

"We hope the new government will speed up the drafting of the new law so that the country will have more visionary law to attract investors," the association's chairman Benny Wahyu was quoted as saying.

Provisional result of the second round of the country's first direct presidential election shows former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (who is also a former minister of energy and mining) control more than 60 percent of the votes counted, while the incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri taking about nearly 40 percent.

Wahyu said that the current government has begun the drafting of the proposed new law but the drafting process has yet to be completed.

According to him, the current mining law No.11/1967 is no longer relevant to the latest development in the world's mining industry. "If we want to compete with Russia, China or Myanmar, we have no choice but to revise the law," he said. (*)