PUTRAJAYA, 23 Ogos -- Menteri Perusahaan, Perladagangan dan Komoditi Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong (dua, kiri) bersalaman dengan Airlangga Hartarto semasa menerima kunjungan Menteri Industri Indonesia itu hari ini. Turut sama (dari kiri) Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian Perusahaan, Perladagangan dan Komoditi Datuk K. Yogeesvaran, Pengarah Eksekutif Jawatankuasa Negara Pengeluar Minyak Sawit (CPOPC) Indonesia, Mahendra Siregar dan Ketua Pengarah Industri Agro Kementerian Industri Indonesia, Panggah Susanto. --fotoBERNAMA (2017) HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia and Indonesia are currently discussing implementation of the B5 biodiesel programme in China, said Plantation and Commodities Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong.
He said China was now increasing its environmental control on many issues and looking at the possibility of implementing B5 biodiesel, which is a blend of 5% palm oil or palm methyl ester (PME) and diesel.
“It would be a game changer for the oil palm industry, if China implements the B5 programme as it is a very big market,” he added.
He told reporters this after receiving a courtesy call from Indonesia’s Minister of Industry, Airlangga Hartarto and the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) executive director Mahendra Siregar at his office in Putrajaya on Wednesday.
Mah said apart from China, Malaysia and Indonesia would work together to export biodiesel to India.
In a statement distributed in conjunction with the meeting, he also said both countries had agreed that palm oil producing nations needed to strengthen their alliance in combating the campaign against the commodity and trade impediments.
A resolution by the European Parliament recently called for the European Union to phase out the use of vegetable oils, including palm oil in biodiesel by 2020, as these were allegedly produced in an unsustainable manner which resulted in deforestation.
Currently, Indonesia and Malaysia are the major global palm oil producers, accounting for 85% of production and 91.2% of exports globally.
Mah in the statement said both countries agreed that palm oil was an important commodity in terms of providing employment, foreign exchange earnings and socioeconomic development, especially for smallholders.
Both Mah and Hartarto stressed the CPOPC’s importance in developing, promoting and strengthening cooperation in palm oil.
“In this context, the CPOPC secretariat has been tasked to promote activities and invite more oil palm producing countries to be members,” Mah said.
In a separate statement, Mah said revenue from palm oil exports from January to June this year reached RM22.9bil, representing a 26.9% increase over the RM18bil recorded in the same period of 2016.
“This was mainly due to an increase in palm oil prices over the same period,” he added.
IHH managing director Dr Tan See Leng said the company delivered on topline growth across all markets despite a challenging operating environment by keeping a relentless focus on core operations, while actively rebalancing assets in its portfolio.
“We are pleased that our two newest hospitals, which will be growth drivers as they ramp up, are already contributing to revenue,” he said.
“We look forward to our next phase of growth, especially in Greater China, where we have laid out plans to make it our fifth home market after Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and India,” Tan pointed out.
Moving forward, IHH expected to face cost pressures on several fronts including from wages, rising purchasing costs with the stronger US dollar and higher pre-operating and start-up costs from new operations that would weigh on profitability in the initial stages.
The company said it would remain prudent in cost management, improve the mix of higher revenue intensity cases and ramp up new facilities to achieve optimal operating efficiencies. - Bernama
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