Indonesia solicited EEPSEA’s support to learn from its neighboring countries about their experiences in policy implementation towards Green Economy. Speakers from Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam were invited to present their experiences to 45 participants from various government agencies in Indonesia on October 21 2013 in Jakarta.
Prof. Armida Alisjahbana, State Minister of National Development Planning, served as the keynote speaker of the event. Other forum speakers included: Kasetsart University’s Dr. Montchai Pinitjitsamut who spoke on economic instruments to support alternative energy in Thailand; Mr. Ruddy Gobel of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction in Indonesia who spoke on the compensation scheme to support Indonesian fuel pricing reform; Ms. Mai Huynh Thi of Vietnam’s Biodiversity Conservation Agency who spoke on payment for ecosystems services in Vietnam; and National University of Singapore’s Prof. Mark Goh who spoke on electronic road pricing.
Ms. Nartalia Derodofa of the ASEAN Secretariat and EEPSEA Senior Economist Dr. Arief Anshory Yusuf closed the workshop with a discussion on the way forward. Ms. Derodofa discussed the various ASEAN initiatives on greening the economy such as the annual ASEAN Plus Three Leadership Programme on Sustainable Production and Consumption and the ASEAN-China Cooperation on Green Economy and Development. Dr. Yusuf, on the other hand, highlighted EEPSEA’s role in strengthening local researchers’ capacity in the conduct of environmental economics research to provide sound policy recommendations, especially towards achieving a greener economy.