INDONESIA DIGEST Indonesia's complex Issues in a Nutshell By: Ms Wuryastuti Sunario Published by: TBSC-Strategic Communication No.: 28.07 - Dated: 10 October 2007
We wish all our Muslim readers "Selamat Idul Fitri" 1 Syawal 1428H In this issue: MAIN FEATURE: HOW GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTS INDONESIA'S ECONOMY NEWS AND BACKGROUND: 1. Tourism and Transportation: World Economic Forum: Indonesia's Global Tourism Competitiveness at no. 60 Davos Tourism Climate Change Declaration Tourist Arrivals to South Sulawesi down 68% in 4 years 2. Politics and Security: Foreign Minister Wirayuda slams Myanmar Junta ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAIN FEATURE: By Tuti Sunario For Indonesia Digest HOW GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTS INDONESIA'S ECONOMY The Coordinating Ministry for the Economy recently held a Meeting to "Coordinate Information pertaining to the Effects of Global Warming on the Indonesian Economy." Main speakers were Prof. Emil Salim and Prof. Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti. Extracts of these papers are given below: Prof. Emil Salim, who has also been appointed Leader of the Indonesian Delegation to the UNFCCC in Bali, explained that in the context of Climate Change, the world perceives Indonesia as being the third largest emitter of Carbon Dioxide at 3.014 MtCO2e. The USA is the top emitter (at 6.005), followed by China (at 5.017). Followed fourth by Brazil (2.316), Russia (1.745) and India (1.577). Unlike other countries where carbon dioxide is produced mainly by industry and transportation, carbon emission in Indonesia is chiefly the result of forest fires and land use changes. Furthermore, in the past ten years, with the granting of wide-scale regional autonomy, large tracts of forests had been cleared by local governments, with no regard to proper land use management. Additionally, Prof. Emil Salim said, state policy to continue to subsidize the distribution of fossil fuel and electricity to the public has pushed Indonesia's energy-mix towards the use of fossil fuel over renewable energy. More so, because Indonesia is a member of OPEC, its policies are viewed to lean towards the pro-fossil fuel countries. Nonetheless, Indonesia's macro-policy envisages a number of national actions to mitigate Climate Change, which encompass the following: 1 Sustainable Development, which include: · A sustainable Economy that reduces and eradicates poverty, · Sustainable Social Conditions that are built on social cohesion, and · A sustainable Ecology to support life Reduce sectoral carbon emission through better scientific and technological means as well as through culture Increase natural carbon absorption through the preservation of rainforests and improved use of value-added natural resources. As a follow up, a number of policies are necessary in order that the above strategy be implemented, which should include policies in the use of low carbon energy; transportation policies, industry, agriculture, urban development, health and education policies. In implementing the use of Low-Carbon Energy, Indonesia needs to "decouple" economic growth from growth of energy by using energy saving products that have low pollution output per unit. Indonesia should also change our energy-mix to renewable energy by 2015 and substantially reduce subsidies on fossil fuel and electricity. Give Top Priority to Developing Services Industries In Transportation, more emphasis should be made on the services functions rather than on the production of goods (e.g. cars and telephones). There must be more public vehicles compared to private cars. Whereas in Industry, on Java and Bali, services industries should be given high priority status, that include tourism, health, education, science etc, while labour-intensive industries should be built on other islands, supported by an efficient transportation system. In Urban development, care should be taken to reduce river water to flow out into the seas, develop a tropical architectural building code and minimize the use of energy and water. As well as mitigate destructions caused by natural disasters through Indonesia's location in the "ring of fire". Prof. Emil Salim is of the opinion that Indonesia's future economic development must give top priority to services rather than to the production of goods. The products of the future must also be environmental friendly, energy saving, use clean technology and building utilizing tropical architecture supporting materials. Prof. Dr. Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti , discussing the Effects of Global Warming on the Real Sector said that global warming has been caused by the excessive production of goods that had not taken into consideration the consequences of waste, both solid and liquid that pollute the air, the sea and the land, all of which resulting in the destruction of the world's ecosystem. Developed versus Developing and Poor Countries The process of global warming in the 21st. century has far reaching effects even impacting on the geo-political and geo-economic order with their resulting geo-strategies, especially in relation to resource-rich countries versus resource-poor countries and their respective population density. Indonesia, which is rich in natural resources, is nonetheless threatened by rising sea-levels that will erode and drown smaller islands. Most of these islands are rich in minerals such as nickel, tin, bauxite, which will become more and more difficult to mine. Furthermore, global warming will accelerate the changing cycles of El Nino-La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, causing extreme droughts on the one hand and extreme storms on the other. Additionally, the yearly forest fires can today no longer be viewed as "accidental" but are already structural, which means that their mitigation and restoration must be supported by Government's Budget. It is also known that climate change and global warming have induced a number of diseases that may grow into epidemics. All the above will place a heavy burden the economy. Prof. Dorodjatun warns that the effects of the negative processes of climate change will be even more fatal on poor and developing countries like Indonesia rather than on rich countries, and these may easily trigger another economic recession. In the latest development, Prof. Emil Salim informed that the December Climate Change Meeting in Bali will be preceded by an international meeting of Finance Ministers in November whose agenda include carbon trading and compensation for developing countries capable of absorbing carbon emission through forest conservation and reforestation. In the Bali Conference, Indonesia will propose that the country be compensated between US$ 5-US$ 20 per hectare preserved. With some 40 million hectares of forest standing, the funds will support a sustainable management of Indonesia's forests besides compensate losses in the local and national economy, reports Kompas daily. (Source: papers published by Indonesia's Trade and Investment News, Kompas) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS AND BACKGROUND: 1. Tourism and Transportation: World Economic Forum: Indonesia's Global Tourism Competitiveness at no. 60 The World Economic Forum has issued its Travel and Tourism Index 2007, in which Indonesia's global competitiveness is rated at a low no. 60 among the world's main tourist destination countries, writes Bisnis Indonesia of 8 October Rated most competitive Asian destinations are Singapore at no. 8 with a score of 5.31, followed by Japan at no. 25 scoring 4.99, Taiwan at no. 30 scoring 4.82, Malaysia at no. 31 scoring 4.80, South Korea at no. 42 scoring 4.56, Thailand at no. 43 scoring 4.58, and Indonesia at no. 60 scoring 4.20. Surprisingly, China follows at no. 71 with a score of 3.07, the Philippines at no. 86 scoring 3.79, Vietnam at no. 88, scoring 3.78, and Cambodia at no. 96, scoring 3.64. Bisnis Indonesia did not mention which were the top-most competitive countries. President of Arrbey Indonesia, Handito Hadi Joewono, explained that WEF used thirteen main criteria to evaluate global competitiveness in Travel and Tourism, these are: a. Legislation and Policies b. Environmental Policies c. Safety and Security d. Hygiene and Cleanliness e. Health f. Travel and Tourism as Priority Sector g. Air Transportation Infrastructure h. Tourism Infrastructure i. Infrastructure in Information and Technology j. Price Competitiveness in Travel and Tourism k. Human Resources l. Perception on National Tourism m. Natural Resources and Cultural Assets Handito further stressed that to become more competitive, Indonesia must not rely solely on Bali as Indonesia's brand image and world perception on Indonesia. Indonesia needs a comprehensive national brand image that must be developed rooted in the above thirteen criteria. Davos UNWTO Tourism Conference: Climate will alter travel patterns in decades Global warming will produce stay-at-home tourists over the next few decades, radically altering travel patterns and threatening jobs and businesses in tourism-dependent countries, according to a stark assessment by U.N experts, reports reuters.com from Davos, Switzerland . The U.N. Environment Programme, the World Meteorological Organisation and the World Tourism Organisation further said that concerns about weather extremes and calls to reduce emissions-heavy air travel would make long-haul flights less attractive. Holiday-makers from Europe, Canada, the United States and Japan were likely to spend more vacations in or near their home countries to take advantage of longer summers, they said. In a report prepared for a U.N. conference on climate change and tourism, they projected that global warming would reduce demand for travel between northern Europe and the Mediterranean, between North America and the Caribbean, and between northeast Asia and southeast Asia. "The geographic and seasonal redistribution of tourist demand may be very large for individual destinations and countries by mid- to late-century," the agencies said. "This shift in travel patterns may have important implications, including proportionally more tourism spending in temperate nations and proportionally less spending in warmer nations now frequented by tourists from temperate regions." However, overall travel demand was expected to grow by between 4 and 5 percent a year, with international arrivals doubling to 1.6 billion by 2020. In some developing and island states, tourism accounts for as much as 40 percent of national economic output. Officials from tourism-dependent countries such as the Maldives, Fiji, the Seychelles and Egypt told the conference that shifts in travel choices, and ecological damage from global warming, posed serious threats to their businesses and jobs. "Tourism is a catalyst to the economy. If you are hitting the tourism sector, automatically this rocks the whole economic machinery," Michael Nalletamby of the Seychelles Tourism Board told the Davos conference. Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of the British government agency VisitBritain, said the sector needed to find ways to reduce the effects of ever-increasing travel demand on the environment, which in turn affects the industry's health. "The biggest risk is that the success of the tourist industry becomes its own undoing," he told the conference. TO SUSTAIN GROWTH, TOURISM SECTOR MUST TAKE ACTION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE - UN The Tourism Industry must meet the challenges posed by climate change if it is to continue its growth, a United Nations-backed conference announced on 3 October. According to the Davos Declaration, reached at the conclusion of a three-day meeting in the Swiss town, "the tourism sector must rapidly respond to climate change, within the evolving UN framework, if it is to grow in a sustainable manner", reports UNWTO. Additionally, it stressed the role tourism can play in addressing climate change to promote both sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals (<"http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/";>MDGs), the eight ambitious targets to slash poverty and other social and economic ills by 2015. UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General Geoffrey Lipman said that "We know that the solutions for climate change and for poverty are interrelated. Here at Davos, the tourism sector committed itself to take a long-term strategic position on these issues, starting now, and to do this as a contribution to the UN Secretary-General's global roadmap for the Climate Change Conference in Bali, at the end of this year. We leave Davos more optimistic about our future on the common agreement to build upon quadruple bottom line sustainability of economic, social, environmental and climate responsiveness." This will require action for the tourism sector to: 1. Mitigate its Greenhouse Gas GHG emissions, derived especially from transport and accommodation activities; 2. Adapt tourism businesses and destinations to changing climate conditions; 3. Apply existing and new technology to improve energy efficiency; and 4. Secure financial resources to help poor regions and countries. Stefanos Fotiou, head of UNEP's Tourism Unit, stressed how the Conference proved "that the tourism industry is challenged by climate change and at the same time is not an insignificant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The Conference has also demonstrated that, through a more intelligent and better managed development trajectory, tourism can assist in combating poverty in developing countries, in reducing its own carbon footprint and make a contribution to the conservation of natural and nature-based resources. In short, tourism has a potentially very important and positive role to play in the key sustainability challenges of our age." Participants at the Davos meeting have concluded that the tourism sector must lessen its greenhouse gas emissions, derived from transport and accommodation activities; adapt tourism businesses and destinations to alter their practices; utilize technology to bolster energy efficiency; and obtain financial resources to assist poor regions and countries. Stefanos Fotiou, who heads UNEP's Tourism Unit, underscored the extremely important and positive role tourism can play in tackling the main issues the world faces today. This meeting sought to determine future action on mitigation, adaptation, the global carbon market and financing responses to climate change for the period after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol - the current global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - in 2012. Together, the Davos Declaration and the results of the meeting will form the basis of the UNWTO Minister's Summit on Tourism and Climate Change to be held in London on 13 November, and will also be presented at the Bali Climate Change Conference early December. Tourist Arrivals to South Sulawesi down 68% in 4 years Nico Pasaka, Chairman of the Indonesian Travel Agencies Association (ASITA) South Sulawesi Chapter, told Bisnis Indonesia that the number of visitors to South Sulawesi has dropped 68% in the past four years. While, resulting from the EU ban on Indonesian airlines alone, over 1,380 tour packages to Makassar and Toraja had been cancelled since June this year. Traditionally, more than 70% of tourists to South Sulawesi came from Europe. Nico Pasaka therefore urges the government to boost overseas promotions, restore and refit neglected tourist attractions and accelerate improved operation of the international airports of Makassar and Manado. In this context, Pasaka also urges that use of allocated budget at the Department of Culture and Tourism for the development of Indonesia's five priority destinations of West Sumatra, North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, East Nusatenggara and West Nusatenggara be discussed and implemented together with these destinations, rather than projects being imposed on them. Minister for Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik has issued Ministerial Regulations No. PM.37/IM.001/MKP/07 dated 2 January 2007 designating the above provinces as Indonesia's priority destinations to be developed in the next three years. 2. Politics and Security: Foreign Minister Wirayuda Slams Myanmar's Junta International pressure on the military Junta in Myanmar has so far not resulted in improvements in the political situation in the country, said Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda in a discussion with Parliament recently, as reported by Bisnis Indonesia. The political pressure by ASEAN in the past ten years has not changed the situation, which has frustrated ASEAN countries. But nor have western countries been successful in pressuring the Junta through censures and sanctions. Although efforts made by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari who managed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi is a positive step in the right direction, however, this effort must be viewed in the long-term context as to whether such efforts will develop into the creation of a democratic Myanmar, said Minister Wirayuda. Meanwhile, Indonesia will continue to press for an immediate democratization of Myanmar by offering concrete solutions to this tragic issue. One proposal is that a transitional government be urgently formed in Myanmar. Last month, Minister Wirayuda expressed that Indonesia was not satisfied with Myamar's explanation that the mass protests led by Buddhist monks in Yangon - that claimed at least 13 lives - were triggered by a fuel oil price hike, Wirayuda told reporters at the United Nations in New York, as reported by Antara and quoted by Indonesia's Trade and Investment News. In Indonesia's view, the demonstrations led by Buddhist monks were not caused by a fuel oil price hike but by the increasing revelation of a fundamental problem, namely a stunted democratization process. "If the reason given is the fuel oil price hike, I will say I do not believe it. This involves something very fundamental, namely a flawed democratization process," he said. "If Myanmar had given a satisfactory explanation, ASEAN foreign ministers would have commended Myanmar," Wirayuda said on the sidelines of bilateral meetings with his ASEAN partners on September 28. 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