INDONESIA NEEDS TO PROTECT ITS MEDICINAL HERBS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, May 26 (Antara) -- Indonesia, a major global producer of medicinal herbs (jamu), needs to protect its jamu products in the face of the free trade area under the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community(AEC).          Indonesia has developed some three thousand types of jamu, herbal medicines believed to contain medicinal properties that can cure diseases since time immemorial. It also serves as an alternative form of medication to modern drugs.          The appeal for protecting Indonesia's jamu products was made by producers in the country at the opening of their Seventh National Meeting at the State Palace on Monday.          According to PT Sido Muncul, one of the country's noted jamu producers, jamu industries hope that the Indonesian government will provide protection in the face of the AEC, which will be implemented at the end of the year.          "In the face of the ASEAN Economic Community, we hope the government will supervise and protect the country's jamu industries," President Director of PT Sido Muncul Irwan Hidayat said at the Presidential Palace on Monday.            Hidayat added that to support the development of jamu industries in the country, the government is expected to make it easy for companies to obtain business permits and to provide supervision and guidance to them in conducting their businesses.          The Sido Muncul chief also pointed out that local companies that perform their business obligations well, such as having Waste Processing Installation (IPAL) to process their production wastes, need to be protected.          A decade ago, ASEAN member countries agreed to implement a single market in the region called the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of December 2015.          Earlier, President Joko Widodo said that Indonesia could not avoid the implementation of the AEC. As the country has different kinds of products and a large market, there is no reason for it to say it is not ready to face the single market in the region, Jokowi, as the president is fondly called, stated after attending the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April 2015.          At the opening of the country's jamu producers' meeting, the head of state expressed hope that Indonesia's medicinal herbs would become a typical national product that could be promoted in the global market and would help to boost the national industry.          "Medicinal herbs are our cultural heritage. I think we should be serious in developing our 'jamu' as a product, which portrays the image that 'jamu is Indonesia and Indonesia is jamu,'" Jokowi remarked while opening the Seventh National Meeting of jamu producers at the State Palace on Monday.          The president noted that Indonesia's medicinal herb exports were still constrained by stringent protection systems on food and beverages abroad.          "However, if the medicinal herbs are in the form of therapeutic products, they can still be exported easily," Jokowi, who claimed to have routinely consumed ginger and buffoonery jamu in the last 17 years, said.          He added that with regard to medicinal herbs, the government was also obligated to provide guidance, supervision and protection to improve the country's herbal medicine industry.          "To advance jamu industries at home, the president hopes the government would be informed of all constraints that hamper the development of medicinal herbs in the country. In this case, coordination should be built together with a number of ministries, such as the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Tourism," Jokowi emphasized.          To prevent the country's jamu from being claimed by other countries as their products, Jokowi reminded people that Indonesia should be registered as the patent right holder of the products.          The government has intended to give patent rights to its herbal medicines that have been scientifically recognized as having credible healing powers.          "We will coordinate with relevant parties to give patent rights to 'jamu' products that have passed the scientific assessment process," Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani said while inspecting the Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine Development Center (BP2T00T) in Karanganyar, Central Java, last month (March 31).          Since 2010, experts have been conducting researches on medicinal herbs to ascertain their medicinal properties that can help cure diseases and explore possibilities for including them in doctors' prescriptions.          Since then, the Health Ministry has carried out a program to 'scientize' Indonesian medicinal herbs to make them as scientifically credible as modern drugs and internationally acceptable.          So far, scientific studies have proven the safety, properties, and quality of five jamu that can heal hemorrhoids, dyspepsia, osteoarthritis, light hypertension, and hyperuricemia or gout complaints. Minister Maharani has launched the five medicinal herbs that have passed the 'scientification' process.          "The scientifically recognized medicinal herbs have been launched as part of the government's commitment to preserving and popularizing jamu," Maharani said while launching the medicinal herbs in Tawangmangu, Central Java.          To further popularize jamu products at home, jamu producers held a Jamu Festival in Central Java last week. The organizers targeted an increase of 20 percent in the jamu transactions during this year's festival as compared to that of last year.         "In 2014, transactions reached a value of Rp425 million. We hope the festival this year will record a transaction of over Rp500 million," Prasetyo Ariwibowo, the head of Semarang's Cultural and Tourism Service in Central Java, stated last Friday.         Ariwibowo affirmed that the number of participants in the festival this year was higher than that in 2014. More than 100 jamu producers took part in the festival in 2015, while some 50 producers participated the previous year.         Moreover, promotions need to be increased to further popularize the country's jamu products.  According to Charles Saerang, the chairman of the National Jamu Producers Association, jamu is a big national asset but its popularity was declining.         "Therefore, we need to promote and preserve the nation's production of jamu, which is our ancestral heritage," Saerang remarked.          Saerang estimated that national jamu industries this year will have a turnover of some Rp15 trillion.     ***3*** (T.A014/INE) EDITED BY INE (T.A014/A/BESSR/Suharto) 26-05-2015 19:47