InfoSAWIT, LAOS – In his work visit to Laos, Coordinator Minister in Economy of Indonesia, Airlangga Hartarto attended the 24th ASEAN Economic Community Council – AECC Ministerial Meeting) on Monday (7/10). In the meeting, he took every ASEAN member to gather and respond global scale – sustainability policy that might be discriminative.
It was conducted in the leadership of Laos in 2024 and discussed about sustainability agenda as the significant issue. One main focus in the meeting was European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) implementation that might have something to do with manufacturer production and slow down product trade in wood, plants and plantation – base. Airlangga emphasized Indonesia would do the best to develop network and get supports to face the policy.
EUDR that was planned to be implemented by the late of December 2024 would be postponed until the early of 2025. Indonesia and Malaysia were objection about data use that might be considered irrelevant with the forest factual condition in ASEAN region. The two countries proposed to establish task force with European Union to share geospatial data as the basic regulation in EUDR. Besides ASEAN, some other countries, such as, the United States of America and Germany did not agree with the regulation.
Besides EUDR, ASEAN would formulate five prior sustainability agenda, such as, the implementation of circular economic frame, operational of carbon neutrality strategies, guidelines to sustainable investment, action plans to sustainable agriculture, and the implementation of blue economic frame.
“In this meeting, I take every ASEAN member to gather and be proactive to respon sustainability policy that might be discriminative, such as, EUDR. This would negatively deliver impacts for the economy and the people’s life,” Airlangga said, in the official statement, as InfoSAWIT quoted, Thursday (10/10/2024). He also encouraged many things together with ASEAN to reinforce the strategic position to get dialogue with some important partners.
He also emphasized the sustainability agenda implementation in ASEA should be pragmatic by involving every party to increase the capacity and capability about sustainability issues.
The meeting was led by Minister of Industry and Trade, Laos and attended by eight ministers and two minister’s representatives from two members and one representative from Timor Leste. Airlangga was with some officials from Indonesia, such as, the secretary of Coordinator Ministry in Economy, deputy of International Cooperation Coordination Ministry in Economy, and the representatives of Ministry of Trade. (T2)
