Skip to main content

Kalla appeals to grass roots, promises fertilizer subsidies

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 06/27/2009 9:58 PM | Presidential Election

Presidential hopeful Jusuf Kalla Saturday promised that if elected he would increase subsidies for fertilizers to make them more affordable for farmers, tempointeraktif.com reported Saturday.

“Companies must increase production and subsidies must be increased so that fertilizers are affordable,” Kalla told 500 fishermen and farmers during an election campaign rally in Manggar Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

Kalla said the current production of fertilizers did not accommodate the needs of farmers, causing high prices.

A shortage of gas supplies had hampered fertilizer production for firms such as PT Pupuk Kaltim, he added.

“If Pupuk Kaltim is short of gas, we will supply more to enable increased production,” Kalla said.
The fishermen also lamented the shortage of diesel fuel, which had prevented them from working and earning necessary income.

“These days, Pak Kalla, the price of diesel fuel increases, but the price of fish and shrimp falls,” Mujib, a fisherman, said.

Mujib asked for state oil company Pertamina to reopen gas stations for fishermen (SPBN).

In response, Kalla said, “that is the duty of a vice president, not a presidential candidate, so I will order Pertamina to reopen the SPBN’s”. (adh)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...
Post a Comment
Read more

World Bank raises China growth forecasts

The World Bank boosted its growth forecast for China and said rising inflation should level off but warned Beijing needs to make the economy less reliant on trade to sustain its expansion. In a quarterly update released Wednesday, the bank said China's politically contentious trade surplus is likely to swell further in 2011, though it cautioned that weak global demand means Beijing shouldn't rely so heavily on exports. The bank raised its 2010 growth outlook from 9.5 percent to 10 percent and its growth outlook for next year from 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent. Growth eased in the third quarter to 9.6 percent from 10.3 percent the previous quarter as Beijing tried to steer it to a more manageable level. "Growth is likely to moderate somewhat more in 2011 and the medium term to a still robust pace," the bank said. Despite a largely upbeat outlook, the bank said Beijing needs to do more to boost domestic demand and cut reliance on exports and investment. Comm...
Post a Comment
Read more