ASEAN Community Offers Potential For Indonesia s Pulp Industry

Singapore, (Antarariau.com) - Next year s implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will offer big business potential for Indonesia s pulp and paper industry to expand its market, a pulp and paper company executive said.

"While other sectors will face a problem, the Indonesian pulp and paper will have business opportunities with the implementation of the AEC beginning at the end of 2015," Kusnan Rahmin, the president director of PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), told the press here on Thursday.

He said that the government s friendly support was therefore badly needed.

The RAPP president director noted that for pulp and paper, ASEAN and China as well Africa were markets which continued to grow.

The implementation of the AEC will increase Indonesia s chance to expand its market share in the region.

"Indonesia has competitive and comparative advantage which other producer countries are relatively hard to compete with," Kusnan stated in a dialog with participants of a journalist workshop in Singapore.

The implementation of the AEC will remove tariff barriers in the ASEAN region, bringing its members to compete with each other.

Indonesia has so far set zero percent tariff for its pulp and paper imports while other countries impose high import duties.

Indonesia exported US$5.6 billion pulp and paper to various countries in 2013.

He noted that China, Asia and Africa will still dominate world s demand for Bleached Hardwood Kraft Pulp (BHKP) in the coming years.

"Paper demand for the uncoated wood free type which contributed 57 percent in the region in 2013 will also increase," he added.