Jakarta’s land crackdown brings ‘short-term pain’ but long-term clarity: Golden Agri-Resources

[SINGAPORE] Golden Agri-Resources expects “short-term pain” from Indonesia’s sweeping land-use review, but sees the land crackdown as a necessary step that resolves “a legacy issue” of overlapping land tenures and provides businesses with long-term clarity.

During a results briefing on Friday (Aug 15), the vertically integrated palm oil plantation company acknowledged that the ongoing discussions with the Indonesian authorities could lead to adjustments in its land bank.

Anita Neville, the company’s chief sustainability and communications officer, said: “Addressing this legacy issue of overlapping land tenure gives businesses long-term confidence. Of course, getting there requires some of this short-term pain as we go through the review process to determine which bits are in and which bits are out.”