Palembang, South Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta here on Monday opened a coordination meeting of Sumatra eco-region as part of a series of environment coordination meetings to be held in five regions.

The other such coordination meetings will be held in Mataram on March 10-12 for Bali-Nusa Tenggara region, in Yogyakarta on March 21-22 for Java region, Makassar on March 23-24 for Sulawesi-Maluku-Papua region and in Banjarmasin on March 28-29 for Kalimantan region.

The coordination meetings which will focus on communication between the Environment Ministry and regional governments are aimed at accommodating aspirations to manage natural resources and the environment in an optimum and strategic manner.

In addition, the meetings are also designed to get a clear picture of natural resource and environmental management in regions in order to sharpen the focus of environmental management strategy, if needed.

The meetings also serve as a means of communication between the ministry and regional governments to adopt concrete steps in handling environment-related problems.

The Palembang meeting is attended by representatives of provincial and district environment agencies from throughout Sumatra and relevant agencies such as the forestry ministry, the public works ministry, the women empowerment ministry, and the finance ministry.

Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta hoped the meeting would agree on action plans for 2012 which constitute a synergy between the central and regional governments in the environmental field.
(T.W004/S012/H-NG/F001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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