Indonesia

Following Brazil's trail, Indonesia is encouraging foreign and local investors to lease huge swathes of fertile countryside and help make the country a major food producer.

Suivant l'exemple du Brésil, l'Indonésie ambitionne de devenir un grand producteur agro-alimentaire, en proposant des centaines de milliers d'hectares de rizières et de champs aux investisseurs nationaux et étrangers.

Minerals Energy Commodities Holding (MEC) is in talks with Indonesia to lease 100,000 ha of farmland in East Kalimantan for UAE's food security.

Pemerintah pusat, Pemda Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), Bank Dunia, dan Pemerintah Korea Selatan (Korsel) akan bekerjasama mengembangkan perkembangan tebu seluas 17.000 hingga 35.000 hektar di Kabupaten Benar Meriah, Banda Aceh.

South Korea's state-run agriculture trading corporation says that it aims to set up an international grain purchasing and distribution company that can invest directly in foreign farms or control stakes in agricultural operations.

As many foreign and local investor are seeking to win a license to invest in the giant agriculture project in Papua, Indonesia, one unnamed South Korean investor has obtained a permit. Mitsubishi is also bidding. Binladin Group has been rejected.

Foreign investors from China, Korea and Singapore have expressed their readiness to invest in the projects to cultivate including paddy to supply for domestic demand.

The government is aiming to attract less than Rp 100 trillion (US$10.6 billion) in investment through the development of three special economic zones (SEZs) producing agricultural products this year.

Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry warns that the government’s plan to develop a major food estate in Merauke, Papua, may run into difficulties because confusing and overlapping land use regulations will deter investors.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to inaugurate the food estate on Feb. 12-13.

The Indonesian government is wise to learn from the South Korea Daewoo-Madagascar deal, which demonstrated the enormous economic, social and political risks associated with foreign ownership of land and water rights.

There are many controversies regarding the expected positive and negative impacts of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's “food estate” program to be launched in Indonesia in February