Roy Goh, New Straits Times 26 Jan 10;
BALIKPAPAN: This city has one of the richest coal deposits in Borneo but no one has plans to mine it.
"Scrape a little bit of earth and you can find coal," said city planner Dr Suryanto MM, adding that preserving the environment is a bigger priority than earning riches.
This has been the Indonesian government's general direction in the last several years on the issues of environmental protection as well as global warming.
Suryanto said the government had a policy to preserve 52 per cent of the city's 500 sq km land area as forest reserves.
He said this during a dialogue and fact-finding mission from Sabah led by former chief minister Datuk Harris Mohd Salleh at the city's government office here.
Harris, along with a group of entrepreneurs, journalists and representatives from the Sabah Indonesian Consulate are here to learn more about economic opportunities in Kalimantan as well as its policies to help foster better understanding and strengthen relationships.
"With the effects of global warming, I think it is pertinent for us to play our part as the green lung of the world. We need to balance development and the conservation of the environment."
Suryanto said even though there were development projects, strict limits or criteria were set before they were allowed to proceed.
"For instance, we plan to reclaim about 400ha of sea near the city centre to build a coastal road that would ease traffic in the long term. As it is now, we are using coal fired plants to generate electricity."
He said coal used at the plants were brought in from other parts of Kalimantan.
The city had also set international standards of approval for major development projects, he said.
