Indonesia plans to tighten rules to curb underage smoking

An underage smoker at a park in Jakarta, Indonesia (Photo: AFP/VNA)– The Indonesian Government is planning to tighten its relatively lax regulations on smoking in a bid to curb the increasing number of child smokers in the country.Under a planned new regulation, the Health Ministry of Indonesia is looking to control the promotion and packaging of e-cigarettes, which have remained unregulated since their legalisation in 2018.The ministry is also seeking to increase the size of graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging from 40% to 90%, ban the advertising, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products, and prohibit the sale of single cigarettes.The number of underage smokers continues to increase each year, especially since the legalisation of e-cigarettes, Imran Agus Nurali, the ministry’s director of health promotion and community empowerment, told a webinar on August 11.He stressed the need for stronger measures to reduce tobacco consumption to protect future generations from the impact of smoking.Banning the advertising, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products is also crucial as according to the 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, around 65% of Indonesia’s children are exposed to tobacco ads through television, point-of-sale advertising, and billboards, he added. Indonesia is the only country in Southeast Asia that still allows cigarette advertising on television and printed media.Aside from revising the prevailing tobacco regulation, the government is also planning to further increase the cigarette excise tax next year.Earlier this year, the Finance Ministry raised tobacco excise by 12%, leading to an average 35% increase in cigarette prices.According to the Health Ministry, tobacco kills around 290,000 people in the country each year./.

August 14, 2022 10:48 UTC


Indonesia prepares strategies to respond to global food crisis

Illustrative image (Photo: antaranews)- Indonesia has prepared several strategies to address the impact of the current global food crisis, which include increasing production, diversifying food, strengthening stocks, and modernising the agriculture sector, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture During a recent virtual discussion on “Handling the Threat of a Global Food Crisis ”, director of cereal at the ministry’s Directorate General of Food Crops Ismail Wahab said that the production of staple foods, especially rice, corn, and soybeans, needs to be increased to ensure they are always available and in a surplus.Earlier, President Joko Widodo said that Indonesia has been able to meet domestic rice demand without relying on imports for the last three consecutive years.However, the country still needs to import corn and soybeans to meet domestic needs, Ismail Wahab said, adding that the government is trying to substitute imported corn with domestic production.Furthermore, the government has devised a road map for planting soybean over up to 1.5 million hectares by 2026 to meet national demand without resorting to imports, he said.He went on to say the food crisis must be prevented through diversification.Wahab said that per capita rice consumption must be reduced and replaced with other staple food, such as cassava, sago, and sorghum, whose production is abundant in the country.The next strategy is to increase food stocks and strengthen logistics. Indonesia must set up food granaries at the village, sub-district, district, city, province, and national levels, he said.It is also important to carry out agricultural modernisation and use superior seed varieties, he added./.

August 12, 2022 21:20 UTC


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