Indonesia's biofuel program to bring 2.5 million jobs in three years time
As part of an expanded poverty alleviation campaign, the Indonesian government would prioritize two programs to reach the goal of creating 15 million jobs before 2010: 'people empowerment' and 'biofuels'. Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, claims that the 'people empowerment program' had actually been running since 1998 in 34,200 villages across the country. The program is expected to generate jobs for 12.5 million people, assuming each project will absorb 250 people in a specific area for three years, said Aburizal. "The projects work, but we need to extend them to 50,000 more villages by 2009," he said after a cabinet meeting Thursday. "The types of projects are determined based on local conditions."
The remaining 2.5 million jobs are expected to come as the government opens plantations to support its biofuel program. Critics have called the anti-poverty projects ineffective, pointing to the steady rise in the number of poor people over the past few years. But Aburizal said that without the programs, poverty rates would have been even higher. "We hope that the coordination between the relevant Cabinet ministers can go better. We have agreed that 20 percent of the total state budget allocated for poverty alleviation will go to these two programs," he said.
The government has increased next year's poverty alleviation budget to 51 trillion rupiah (€4.4 billion/US$5.6 billion ), from 43 trillion rupiah (€3.7billion/US$4.7 billion) in 2006 [entry ends here].
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: sustainability :: social justice :: jobs :: Indonesia ::
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Saturday, September 09, 2006
China and India sign strategic memorandum on science & technology cooperation
The agreement is important because energy, climate change, biotechnology and agronomy are high on the agenda. The cooperation is based on both public interest and pure science and technology 'pillars':
- Environment and energy: the two governments hope to collaborate on solving environmental problems by exchanging India and China's unique experiences amidst rising energy prices. Cooperation on research into alternative transport energies to combat energy insecurity and pollution in urban areas will be of strategic importance.
- Biotechnology and agronomy: research into genomics, meteorology and biomass technologies have been singled out as concrete fields for cooperation. India has a lot to offer in agronomic sciences, considering the fact that the contribution of agriculture in India's gross domestic product (GDP) at 24% was higher than China's 14%, Mr Sibal said.
- Climate change: India would stand to gain from China's expertise in climate change mitigation strategies (even though it is not clear which 'strategies' are being referred to here)
- Nanotechnology: a "Nano-Science Forum" will be created, with research into applications in the field of energy technology being one component
The comprehensive agreement further foresees in exchanges in the fields of software and space technology, amongst other sectors. Science, Tech and Earth Sciences minister Kapil Sibal summarized the vision behind the agreement thus:Sibal further noted that Sino-Indian trade has already reached US$18 billion. China is destined to become India's largest trading partner. He added that China has a population of 1.3 billion and that India's has reached 1.1 billion. "If you add the association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN), the population of this region will touch 3 billion which means that we constitute half of the world's population." "So we have the market and we have the manpower. What we need is the technology. So let us start an Indo-China technology partnership. Let the strategic partnership for friendship become a strategic partnership for science and technology."
More information:
- Zee News: India, China sign MoU on science and technology cooperation - Sept. 7, 2006
- The Hindu: 'India, China trade ties can overtake world trade' - Sept. 7, 2006
- Financial Express India: 'Indo-China combo can overtake world trade’ - Sept. 7, 2006
- Indian Express: India, China sign MoU on technology cooperation - Sept. 7, 2006
- The Hindu: India, China to work towards 'win-win' strategic ties in S&T - Sept. 7, 2006
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: climate change :: energy :: biotechnology :: cooperation :: India :: China ::Article continues
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