Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia and Australia together with entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific region held a joint forum called the Bali Process Forum of Government and Business (GABF) to encourage implementation of responsible business practices. The meeting that was held in Nusa Dua, Bali on 6-7 August 2018, was to follow-up the first GABF meeting in Perth Australia last year.

INDONESIAN Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi voiced concern about trade protectionism on agriculture products, exclusively on palm oil.

In trying to implement 5th dictum of Minister of Energy and Mineral Recources Decree Number 6034K/12/MEM/2016 concerning Market Price Index (MPI) for biofuel blended with fuel oil as amanded by Minister of Energy and Mineral Recources Decree Number 2026 K/12/MEM/2017, we are pleased to announce MPI of August 2018: [googlepdf url=\`http://www.bpdp.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HIP-BBN-Bulan-Agustus-2018.pdf\` download=\`Download\` width=\`600\` height=\`400\`]

INDONESIA possesses enormous amounts of biomass resources, including biomass from palm oil waste.

The Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) delivered a presentation to the Russian business community on palm oil industry and its contribution to economic development in Indonesia. Director of Fund Disbursement of BPDPKS Edi Wibowo delivered the presentation focused on the theme of "High Quality Indonesian Palm Oil: Application and Current Issues" during a discussion session on the Russian-Indonesian Business Forum in the event of Festival Indonesia in Moscow, (2/8/2018). As reported by Antara news agency, Edi revealed that smallholder farmers has a significant role in national palm oil industry.

(BLOOMBERG)-Palm oil inventories in Malaysia probably swelled to the highest in five months in July as production in the world\'s second-largest grower surged the most in a year. Stockpiles rose about 11 percent from a month earlier to 2.42 million metric tons, the highest since February and biggest increase since November, according to the median estimate of nine planters, traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The implementation of Biodiesel 20 (B20) is believed to affect foreign exchange efficiency, particularly, in oil and gas sector which over the last six years has reached US$5.4 billion, whereas non oil and gas sector produces US$4.4 billion surplus. Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution said that since the Limited Cabinet Meeting has decided to consistently apply the use of B20, the Government has a strong foundation to immediately eliminate current account deficit.

President Joko Widodo ensured that Indonesia is serious in dealing with the plan to expand the mandatory fuel with 20% biodiesel content (B20).

INDUSTRY Minister Airlangga Hartarto has said that the government needs about two or three years to implement the use of fuel with 100% biodiesel content (B100), a type of biofuel commonly known as green diesel. "To implement B100 plan, we need new green diesel refineries and it will take two or three years," Airlangga said at Indonesian Stock Exchange Building, Wednesday (1/8/2018) as quoted by detik.com. B100 is compliant with the Euro-4 emissions standard.

The government is planning to revise presidential regulation on collection and disbursement of oil palm fund in a bid to expand the use of biodiesel with 20% biofuel (B20) on non-public service obligation (PSO) transportation. "The government will revise presidential regulation on collection and disbursement of oil palm fund that mandating B20 only to public service obligation (PSO) transportation," said Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto on a press conference after a meeting in presidential office, Friday (20/7/2018). According to him, the use of B20 is only mandated to subsidised transportation (PSO), such as trains.

INDONESIA is not only accelerating use of fuel with 20% biodiesel content (B20), but also to implement 100% biodiesel (B100) that is also known as green diesel.

SMALLHOLDER oil palm farmers associated to Koperasi Konsumen Anugerah Jaya Mandiri Sejahtera (AJMS) at Perlabian Village in sub-distric of Kampung Rakyat, Labuhanbatu Selatan Regency of North Sumatera Province has started replanting their oil palm plantation, (26/7/2018). As reported by Antara Sumut, replanting program funded by the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) covers 157 hectare plantation owned by 79 farmers.