Border trade may reopen

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THERE is a proposal to have Batas, the economic zone at the Wutung-Skouw border reopened for trading, Indonesia Ambassador to PNG Andriana Supandy says.
Supandy said an estimated K7 million was spent monthly at Batas as a result of trading that takes place there.
“On the border area, last year, I think, every month, the business transaction at the border area is around 24 billion Indonesian Rupiah, it’s more or less like K7 million every month.
“But if you compare that to now, since after the outbreak of Covid-19 virus and the closure of the border, the trading activities were prevented,” Supandy said.
“Representatives from both Government continue to inspect regularly and are quite strict as there are no trading activities.
“At the moment, it’s still being reviewed. Rough predictions is that it’s now 80 per cent lower than last year.
“But there are talks to reactivate trading at the border area. For the people in both sides, they need each other.
“There is a proposal to reactivate the trading activities, of course, with very strict protocols of Covid-19 arrangements.
“We will arrange for physical distancing, personal hygiene, very strict location, time arrangements, and all necessary measures.
“I do hope that the proposal on the opening of the special arrangement on the trading activities at border will be implemented soon. It is understood that people at the border who depend so much on the border have requested to reopen the border. We hope we can reach a best solution so the border can be reopened.”
Meanwhile, Ambassador Supandy was at the border last month to repatriate 41 Indonesians back to Indonesia from PNG.
“I visited Vanimo, and the border area on June 27 as we repatriated 41 Indonesians and workers who have been working in PNG.
“We have so far repatriated 75 Indonesians in the country back to Indonesia and we have repatriated 30 Papua New Guineans from Indonesia.
“We have a close relationship between the two Governments and on July 15, we are going to repatriate 101 Indonesians who will be going back through Wutung-Skouw border and at the same time, we are going to repatriate around 17 Papua New Guineans from several cities in Indonesia who are mostly students studying there.”