Vice President Ma'ruf Ensures Government Prepares Rice Price Control Steps

Illustration: Vice President Ma'ruf Amin shook hands with New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters (ANTARA/HO-Secretariat Vice President/pri.)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin ensured that the government had prepared steps to control rice prices at normal prices in the domestic market entering Ramadan this year. "The government is doing two things. First, the availability of goods exists and second, price control," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin in Auckland, New Zealand, quoted from Antara, Friday, March 1. Ma'ruf said that price control is not an easy policy, but President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has predicted that the rice harvest in the near future can help rice prices return to normal prices. Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said that nationally, Indonesia had experienced a rice deficit due to the delayed harvest as a result of El Nino's extreme weather. According to him, similar symptoms are also experienced globally in many regions around the world. Nevertheless, the Vice President continued, the Indonesian government has made efforts to meet rice needs with imports. "So the provision, the availability of rice is sufficient through this import," said Vice President Ma'ruf AMin. According to the Vice President, rice needs in the community will be met gradually and it is just a matter of waiting for the price of rice to return to normal.

"Hopefully, we'll just follow it," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin.