Indonesia to join Pacific trade pact

“Indonesia is an open economy”.

Eleven warships and two passenger ships will be sent to affected areas to serve as temporary shelters and transport residents, especially children, to safer locations, Nugroho says.

Thousands of fires caused by slash-and-burn farming have blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia for nearly two months, forcing many schools to close and flights and worldwide events to be cancelled.

After speaking with President Obama on Monday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said his country plans to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the USA has forged with 11 other countries. “Not only is it a major environmental crisis, but it’s a huge public health crisis”.

Indonesia’s land use policies, including so-called “slash and burn” agricultural practices, combined with unusually dry weather related to El Niño, are killing people. The document also contains pledges that the government will pursue criminal charges against companies that allow fires to occur in their concessions and prohibit them from conducting an initial public offering in Indonesia.

Kalstar, which became the first Indonesian Embraer E195 operator in January 2015, was targeting passenger growth to around 1.5 million passengers this year, but now has been forced to downgrade expectations significantly, Kalstar spokesperson Mochamad Zainuddin said.

The local media reported recently that the Indonesian authorities had identified five Malaysian-owned estates believed to be involved in the burning of forest and agricultural areas in the country as a re-planting method.

Several churches have been subject to arson attacks over the last few weeks in the the conservative province of Aceh, whose regional government has imposed sharia law.

“This is due to human acts because 99 percent of forest fires were started deliberately”.

Teams of volunteers have been trying to put the fires out but many are out of control.

“I’m confident there will be a discussion of additional assistance that the United States could provide, and we stand ready to have those discussions”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.

Obama said later it was important for large countries like the United States and Indonesia “to arrive at the strongest possible set of targets and worldwide agreements when we arrive in Paris”.

Professor Meijaard called for efforts including fire bans, improved firefighting efforts, a prohibition on peat development and programs to divest agricultural production on peat. “It’s still very much a new frontier”.

Widodo had initially planned to visit the United States from October 25 to October 30 in a bid to attract more foreign investments into Southeast Asia’s largest economy.