Indonesia loses Rp 5.71t through unused lands

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Indonesia loses a potential Rp 5.71 trillion (US$630.40 million) annually from 7.15 million hectares of unused land across the country, or an area 110 times the size of Singapore, an official says.

"That (the potential loss) is equal to our GDP or our production value for the whole year, including that produced by foreign companies operating here," head of the National Land Agency (BPN), Joyo Winoto, said here Wednesday.

Winoto made the remarks at a three-day seminar and congress of the Association of Indonesian Soil Sciences (HITI), which he officially opened at UPN Veteran University in Yogyakarta.

Some 500 scientists attended the event, which was held under the theme: Solution to the mismanagement of lands and water to help improve people's welfare.

Winoto said the estimated loss was based on a rough calculation of the existing use of lands across the country.

Winoto said unused land was often unable to be utilized or managed for productive activities as it was usually owned by either individuals or companies.

He attributed this to a lack of adequate regulations, saying Law No 5/1960, that should function as the basis for agrarian affairs in the country, was not effective.

Another regulation -- Law No 56/1960 -- he said, dealt only with restrictions on land ownership for agricultural purposes for individuals.

"A regulation (on land ownership) for individuals for non-agricultural purposes does not exist yet ... neither does one for companies dealing with both agricultural and non-agricultural industries," Winoto said.

"What we have now is only a regulation set by the BPN head. And this is not enough. We are dealing with concession issuance. It's a state policy. So, a comprehensive law is required."

He said the concentration of private control over resources was unhealthy, especially over land and the economic and political resources of a nation.

"It's really very worrying to learn there is a holding company here in control of more than 400,000 hectares of land. That is seven times (the size of) Singapore," he added.

He said 56 percent of Indonesia's strategic national assets were under the control of only 0.2 percent of the total population of the country, creating gaps in social, economic and political matters.

The problem, according to Winoto, gets more complicated when it is related to the problem of poverty.

Some 39 million of Indonesia's population, he said, were economically poor, including 66 percent that lived in rural areas and 56 percent of which depended on agriculture for a living.

"It's quite interesting to learn that, in this independent country, 90 percent of the economically poor people are hard workers. They work hard but they are poor. Why?" Winoto said.

"I had a team look into this. It discovered that most poor people did not have access to economic and political resources, including land, capital and technology," he added.

Winoto expressed hope the HITI seminar and the congress would go beyond discussions on soil fertility and would also contribute to agrarian reform.