2) Sogavare starts MSG tour amid West Papua impasse
3) Freeport, PT Amman Pay Rp2.5tn in Export Duty on Concentrates
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1) Solomon PM on tour of MSG capitals
| 9:25 pm GMT+12, 12/01/2017, Solomon Islands |
Solomon Islands Prime Ministe Manasseh Sogavare departs today for his second Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) capital tour covering Port Vila, Suva and Port Moresby respectively.
The visit to be made in Prime Minister Sogavare’s capacity as the MSG Chair will see the discussion of issues concerning and relevant to the MSG with fellow Melanesian leaders, Prime Minister Charlot Salwai of Vanuatu, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill of Papua New Guinea and the Spokesperson of the FLNKS (Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste) of New Caledonia, Victor Tutugoro.
The MSG Chair will meet with Tutugoro in Port Vila.
It is envisaged that during tour, the MSG Chair and Leaders will also endorse the Revised Criteria for Observer status, Associate Membership and new MSG Guidelines to the MSG.
The Prime Minister’s eight member delegation includes his wife Emmy, Secretary to the MSG Chair, Rence Sore and two other officers from the Prime Minister’s Office, one officer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade and two Close-Protection Police personnel.
The delegation will return on 26 January.
SOURCE: PM'S PRESS SECRETARIAT/PACNEWS
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2) Sogavare starts MSG tour amid West Papua impasse
1:26 pm today
The chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, the Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare, today starts a tour of the member states' capitals.
This comes after last year's repeated failures to hold a summit with the other leaders of the MSG which has been split over how to position itself on the West Papua issue.
Last month, some MSG foreign ministers met in Port Vila to consider membership criteria but Fiji's Frank Bainimarama was absent.
Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have been open to accommodating West Papua as a full member while Fiji and Papua New Guinea are opposed to it.
West Papua is a Melanesian part of Indonesia which, as an associate MSG member, wants to prevent the United Liberation Movement for West Papua from ever becoming a full member.
Mr Sogavare is due in Port Vila today to meet his Vanuatu counterpart Charlot Salwai as well as the spokesperson for New Caledonia's FLNKS movement Victor Tutugoro.
His tour will also take him to Suva and Port Moresby.
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3) Freeport, PT Amman Pay Rp2.5tn in Export Duty on Concentrates
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Heru Pambudi, Director General of Customs and Excise, the Finance Ministry, said that PT Freeport Indonesia and PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara in 2016 paid Rp2.5 trillion (USD187,716,000) in export duty on mineral concentrates.
Heru elaborated that PT Freeport paid Rp1.23 trillion (USD92,356,272), whilst PT Amman Mineral Nusa paid Rp1.25 trillion (USD93,858,000).
The office still awaits Energy Ministry confirmation on concentrate export regulations, including on proposed 10 percent export duty, before it can calculate the revenue from concentrate exports for 2017.
Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan had earlier proposed 10 percent duty on concentrate export.
The government has issued Government Regulation No. 1/2017 on the Fourth Revision to Government Regulation No. 23/2010 on Mineral and Coal Mining. As such, mining corporations will be allowed to continue to export mineral concentrates. They, however, need to make the switch from their current contract of work to special mining permit (IUPK).
At present, a 5 percent duty is imposed on concentrate exports. The new tariff will be proposed to and evaluated by the Finance Minister.
ANTARA
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Indonesian defense minister tells Australia: Let bygones be bygones
Safrin La Batu The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Fri, January 13, 2017 | 06:33 am
Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said Thursday that the spat between Indonesia and Australia over an alleged insult of the former’s military and state ideology of Pancasila should not be prolonged.
Ryamizard said he had communicated with Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne and told her that the two countries should move on from the spat, taking it only as a lesson that the two neighbors should respect each other more in the future.
“I called her to say ‘let bygones be bygones’,” Ryamizard told reporters after attending an executive meeting to discuss the Indonesian defense strategy this year.
“I also told her ‘let’s enlighten our subordinates so a problem like this will not repeat’,” he added.
Early this month, Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo declared a temporary suspension of Indonesian-Australian military cooperation after a special force trainer found materials at an Australian teaching facility that could be perceived as having insulted both the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Pancasila.
Australia has apologized over the alleged insult and promised to dispose of the materials deemed offensive by the TNI.
Ryamizard previously said the Australian government was serious in probing the alleged insult and emphasized that the halt in military cooperation would not affect relations elsewhere. (evi)
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