Agro Indonesia | 26 September 2020
UAE agricultural giant invests in 100,000 hectares, Minister of Environment and Forestry will prepare the land
by Sugiharto
(Translation from original in Bahasa)
by Sugiharto
(Translation from original in Bahasa)
Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya said she would prepare the land needed for investment by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agricultural giant, Elite Agro LLC.
"The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) is ready to facilitate the provision of this land, because the government is indeed preparing a food estate agenda," said Siti Nurbaya while in a virtual meeting with the Indonesian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Husin Bagis, Friday (25 / 9/2020).
Based on a press release from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Elite Agro LLC, an agricultural sector company from the UAE, has initiated a collaboration with the Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture since 2019 regarding "Research and Development Collaboration for Agricultural Crops Commercialization" in Lembang, West Java on an area of 19 ha, but is constrained by the land supply.
Elite Agro LLC has also started exploring cooperation in the agricultural sector or Food Estate in Central Kalimantan which requires 100,000 hectares of land, and is facing the same problem, namely access to land.
Regarding the need for land for research, Minister Siti offered to use the Special Purpose Forest Area (KHDTK), in this case specifically for agricultural research, whose permits could be processed relatively quickly.
Meanwhile, for production investment, Minister Siti explained, the food estate in Central Kalimantan has begun to be implemented by the Ministry of Public Works in ex-transmigration areas. Approximately 148,000 hectares have begun to be prepared with an irrigation scheme.
"We are also preparing around 31,000 hectares of land for food estate and in strategic food management for the Ministry of Defense in the form of borrowing from areas that no longer function properly as forests," he said.
Husin Bagis expressed his gratitude and appreciation to Minister Siti Nurbaya for providing solutions to accelerate the implementation of the UAE-Indonesia government cooperation.
Husin thinks this cooperation will benefit both countries. "We are sure that investing in Indonesia will encourage other investors from the Middle East such as Qatar to also invest in Indonesia," he said.