Your Excellency Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy,
Honorable USAID Mission Director, Members of the Board of Trustees of
DML, Members of the Indonesian Society of Sanitary and Environmental
Engineers, Members of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is indeed an honor and pleasure to talk to
you this morning concerning the partnership between the United
States-Asia Environmental Partnership and Dana Mitra Linkungan.
Dana Mitra Linkungan or DML is an Indonesian
non-governmental, non-profit organization, that was established 15
years ago by "Captains of Industry" to enhance public awareness of
environmental issues, particularly among the business community, and
to raise and administer funds for environmental management efforts in
Indonesia.
Our founders include Bapak Sumitro
Djojohadikusumo, Bapak Emil Salim, Bapak William Surajaya, Bapak Harun
Al Rasyid, and Bapak Th. M Gobel.
DML has two main programs: (1) natural
resource or "green" programs and (2) industrial environmental or
"brown" programs.
DML will increasingly focus our efforts on
our industrial environmental portfolio and will be managed by an
important part of DML: Forum Komunikasi Mitra-mandiri Berkelanjutan
Indonesia or KMB.
KMB was formed in January 1998 as a forum to
facilitate the exchange of information, experiences, practices, and
technologies to increase the production efficiency of industries while
improving their environmental performance through pollution
prevention/cleaner production.
Through KMB Indonesia, DML has established a
partnership with US-AEP. The grant received by DML to conduct the
Eco-Productivity Outreach Corps and Waste Exchange Program
will be fully carried out by the KMB Indonesia team with its regional
networks in Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, and East Java.
Private sector manufacturing was seen in the
1980s and early 1990s as the driving force behind Indonesia�s economic
growth. We believe the that it will also be a significant contributor
to Indonesia�s economic recovery.
US-AEP has committed US$350,000 in order to
assist industries create or maintain jobs and contribute to
Indonesia�s economic recovery, while improving industrial
environmental performance. Part of this is a US$100,000 grant to DML/KMB
to establish a program to assist manufacturers of export products
improve their production efficiency to be more competitive in the
world market.
Train and dispatch teams of
pollution prevention/process/environmental engineers to selected
industries to identify no-cost/ low-cost changes to production
processes to improve efficiency.
By lowering production costs,
these industries will be able to compete more effectively in the
world market.
As a result they will be able to
maintain their current workforce, if not expand. In addition, the
increased production efficiency will reduce environmental impact.
