Indonesia ‘needs time’ to tackle haze

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has said he needs time to tackle the forest-burning which creates a haze every year over South East Asia.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Widodo said Indonesians were also victims of the haze, but it would take three years for results to be seen from efforts to end the huge annual fires.

He also said Indonesia was open to investment, promising to cut red tape.

And he dismissed criticism he had failed to deliver on election promises.

Illegal fires

Speaking to the BBC Asia Business correspondent Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta, Widodo said the haze was "not a problem that you can solve quickly".

Workers use their mask as sit on a wooded boat during across the river as the haze shrouded Batanghari River in Jambi, Indonesia Sumatra island, September 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters

The pollution is caused by people in Indonesia's Sumatra, Kalimantan and Riau regions illegally burning large areas of forest and peat for planting, mostly with lucrative palm oil trees.

It is repeated point of tension between Indonesia and its neighbours every year, often causing air conditions classified as highly hazardous to human health. Earlier this year it was so bad in Riau province a state of emergency was declared.

Singapore and Malaysia have called on Indonesia to do more to address the problem, though Indonesia has often pointed out that some of the companies responsible for the burning are foreign-owned and that their neighbours benefit from cheap palm oil products.

Widodo said Indonesia had "gone to great lengths" to tackle it already, including sending 3,700 soldiers, nearly 8,000 police officers and four water-bombing planes to put out the fires.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (L), accompanied by Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) chief Gatot Nurmantyo (2nd L), walks during a visit to the burned forest at Pulo Keronngan village in Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra province, Indonesia, September 6, 2015, in this photo taken by Antara Foto/Reuters

It was building water reserves in the forest and canals to get water to the hotspots, he said, while also making progress to enforce laws against forest-burning.

"You will see results soon and in three years we will have solved this," he said.

'Recovery on the way'

Widodo - popularly known in Indonesia as Jokowi and a former governor of Jakarta – was elected in July last year promising to reinvigorate the economy and increase infrastructure spending.

But after a decade of improving living standards, Indonesia is facing its slowest average growth rate in a decade and many have already grown disillusioned.

Widodo said government spending was picking up, and signs of recovery would be clear by early next year.

Work recently began on a much-needed metro system for the congested capital, Jakarta, a small sign of progress on infrastructure. Photo: Reuters

He said he was working to remove red tape in many industries to encourage investment and trigger growth.

But any infrastructure spending had to be privately funded and transparent, he said, saying a much-vaunted foreign-backed high-speed rail network was recently cancelled because it had not met these conditions.

"This is my job and my responsibility to open the door for investment, to provide a business environment in order to build industries in Indonesia. We have to build industrialisation and infrastructure so people can work there."