INDONESIA WELCOMES PROPOSAL TO ABOLISH TARIFF ON SALE OF BOOKS WITHIN ASEAN

From Newmond Tibin

PAMPANGA (Philippines), March 27 (Bernama) -- Indonesia welcomed the
proposal to abolish tariff on the sale of books to enable locally-published
books to penetrate markets in Asean.

"We welcome the proposal as it will benefit Asean member countries,
especially the people of Indonesia and Malaysia who use similiar language,"
Hubertus Sadirin, Senior Conservationist and Trainer of Indonesia's Ministry of
Culture and Tourism told Bernama, here Saturday.

He was here to attend the 7th Meeting of Senior Officials Responsible for
Culture and Arts (SOMCA) and the 4th Meeting of Asean Ministers Responsible for
Culture and Arts (AMCA) which ended Friday.

Last Monday, Malaysia's Information Communication and Culture Minister Dr
Rais Yatim said in Kuala Lumpur that the proposal would not only benefit
Malaysia but also other Asean member countries and that the matter would be
raised at the meeting here.

Rais also said that currently, locally-published books found it hard to
penetrate the international market compared to books from the other countries
where the demand for them was rather strong to the extent that they were
reprinted.

On March 26, Rais, who attended the AMCA here, said although the meeting did
not specifically discuss the matter, the issue might be discussed at the
bilateral level between Malaysia and Indonesia, which had a combined population
of nearly 300 million using similar language.

Expressing positive response to the proposal, Hubertus hoped the discussion
over the matter could be held as soon as possible.

"This is a very good suggestion and we are looking forward to deliberating
this further," he said.

-- BERNAMA