Rupiah's Strengthening Threatens National Furniture Industry

 

Indonesian rupiah banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Jakarta January 17, 2011. Indonesia moved a step closer toward securing a coveted top sovereign debt grading on Monday when Moodys upgraded its foreign and local-currency bond ratings to Ba1 from Ba2. Indonesia has been a darling of foreign investors for the last two years and has ridden out the global financial crisis with flying colours.  

The rupiah’s strengthening may threaten domestic furniture and handicraft industries, the Indonesian Furniture and Handicraft Producers Association (ASMINDO) warned, calling on the central bank to intervene in the money market.

"The rupiah’s strengthening from Rp10,000 to Rp8,600 per dollar has caused difficulties to furniture and handicraft exporters," ASMINDO Chief Ambar Tjahyono said here on Thursday.
The appreciation made Indonesian furniture and handicraft goods lose ground in the global market to similar products from rival countries and led to a glut of Chinese products to the domestic market, he said. To make profit, he stated domestic producers must raise their prices but this would cause international buyers to switch to other suppliers that offered lower prices.
He further expressed regret over the higher lending rate which currently reached more than 13 percent while interest on time deposits only stood at an average of 7 percent. "If this continues to happen only banks can do business," he said.
He said if the rupiah continued to strengthen to a level of Rp8,000 a dollar not only furniture and handicraft industries but also other industries relying on exports would collapse.
In addition, the rupiah’s strengthening would also threaten the target of furniture and handicraft exports which has been set at US$3 billion for 2011, he said. Ideally, the rupiah should trade at Rp9,500 a dollar in the money market, he said.

Kate Moss Poses Nude for Brazilian Vogue

Going for gold: Kate Moss poses nude for Mario Testino in the May issue of Brazilian Vogue magazine

She may be 37-years-old, but Kate Moss can clearly still do a smouldering magazine cover as well as a model half her age. And she's got the body to prove it.
The British model looks stunning as she poses nude for the May issue of Brazilian Vogue, wearing nothing but a pair of gold cuff bracelets, and showing off a pair of tiny tattoos above her derrière.
With her hair a shade of honey blonde and her eyes rimmed with black eyeliner, the sizzling [picture was taken by renowned photographer Mario Testino.
The photograph, along with inside images, were taken in the city of Sao Paolo to mark the magazine's 36th anniversary. Kate recently told Vogue U.K that she shot 60 pages for the magazine while in the South American country with her eight-year-old daughter Lila.
'It was a lot,' she told the magazine. 'I had Lila with me and I thought it would be more of a holiday.
'Mario usually finishes quite early, but not this time.'
The model is clearly still in demand for glossy magazine shoots, appearing on the covers of both Vogue Paris and Vogue Japan in May. It looks like it is going to be a busy few months for the model who is tying the knot with her boyfriend, Kills rocker Jamie Hince this summer.
The couple are said to be planning to wed on July 2 at an undisclosed location, but sources have claimed it will be near her £2million Cotswolds home.

Indonesia Needs to Tighten Control of Imported Fish

A worker unloads a fresh catch of tuna for export to the US and Japan at Muara Baru, Jakartas fish port on May 26, 2010. US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke witnesssed the signing of the Indonesia-US Ocean Exploration Partnership as he underscored shared US-Indonesia economic and environmental commitments during his visit at the port. Indonesia is one of the six countries within the massive marine-rich Coral Triangle together with, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste threatened by illegal and unregulated fishing.

The government needs to tighten control of imported fish to prevent the entry into the domestic market of illegal fish, protect local consumers from bad quality and safeguard local fishermen from being flooded with similar kinds of fish they produce.
The need to tighten control imported fish was voiced by a non-governmental organization (NGO) following allegations that thousands of tons of illegal fish imports had been allowed to enter the domestic market which could threaten local consumers and brought in bad image on the country’s fish products.
"This will create bad image on maritime affairs and fisheries ministry (KKP) in the eyes of the public. It only shows the ministry’s inconsistency and creates bad impacts on the credibility of fisheries at home," Riza Damanik, secretary general of the People’s Coalition for Fishery Justice (Kiara), said.
The NGO has alleged that over 2,000 tons of illegal fish imports had been allowed entry into the domestic market which the government had denied. According to data from the fish quarantine and aquaculture quality control and safety agency this month, 12,060 tons or 245 containers of illegally imported fish were seized.
Of the 2011 total, 2,360 tons were allowed to enter into the domestic market, 4,172 tons or 152 containers were re-exported, and 2,399 tons were re-exported to the countries of origin.
"Even it only accounts for 16 percent, the volumes of illegal fish imports allowed to enter the domestic market will have serious impacts on the domestic fishery industry," Riza Damanik said.
He said that the illegal fish imports must be detained because they had bad quality and contained high metal, water and formaldehyde contents. After all, they were not equipped with the required import documents. The imported fish has the same kinds of fish produced by fisherman in Indonesia.
No matter how much the volumes of fish whose imports are allowed by the government, any imports of fish which involved these reasons must be detained and re-exported because the quality of the fish could not be guaranteed for domestic consumers, according to Riza.
Therefore, Kiara stressed the importance of four points in the handling of fish imports. The government must be consistent with the maritime affairs and fisheries ministry’s Regulation No. 17/2010 on aquaculture quality control and safety which stipulates that the imports must be returned three days at the latest, or be destroyed.
Fish import regulations should also include an import ban on fish which has the same kind of that produced by local fishermen and the government should help reduce fish production cost and provide traditional fishermen with incentives.
"No less important is that the government should provide education for the Indonesian people to consume healthy fish caught by traditional fishermen from the Indonesian waters," Riza said.
Therefore, according to Kiara program coordinator Abdul Halim the government should tighten control of the import of fish whose kind is similar to that produced by Indonesian fishermen and whose quality is bad with excessive water and formaldehyde contents. He said however that there was no guarantee that illegal fish imports would not circulate in the domestic market.
After all, he has alleged that the maritime affairs and fisheries ministry had been inconsistent in dealing with illegal fish imports as thousands of tons of illegally imported fish were still pouring into the domestic market. The ministry’s organization management system has caused domestic fish consumers to face quality and safety uncertainty of fish products available in the market, he said.
Letting 2,360 tons to go into the domestic market is a bad precedence for legal enforcement efforts, according to Abdul Halim added. "The problem is that certain fish suppliers have been accused of receiving and processing fish collected from illegal practices. If we allow it to continue, Indonesia will be seen as illegal fish producer internationally, and of course we don’t want that," he stated.
On the allegation of letting illegal fish imports into the market, the KKP ministry has denied it. "It is not true if the KKP ministry is accused of having allowed illegal fish imports into the market," Yulistyo Mudho, head of KKP’s Statistics and Information Center said on Tuesday.
He said that the KKP ministry had consistently rejected the entry into Indonesia of illegal fish imports and would re-export any of illegal fish imports. He stated that re-export of illegal fish imports had been done in a number of ports such as Tanjung Periok port in Jakarta and Belawan port in Medan, North Sumatra.
The re-export steps were taken as an implementation of the Ministerial Regulation No. 17 / 2010. The KKP ministry recorded that up to April 5, 2011, it had rejected at least 245 containers and 423 boxes of fishery products imported into Indonesia.
"The allegations that illegal imported fish has been circulating in the domestic market after the KKP has allowed it, are not true," Yulistyo said.