Improving the Business Climate in NTT: The Case of Agriculture Trade in West Timor

Widjajanti Isdijoso Suharyo, Sudarno Sumarto (ssumarto@smeru.or.id), Nina Toyamah, Adri Poesoro, Bambang Sulaksono, Syaikhu Usman, Vita Febriany, Harry D.J. Foenay, Rowi Kaka Mone, Thersia Ratu Nubi and Yakomina W. Nguru
Additional contact information
Widjajanti Isdijoso Suharyo: SMERU

Trade Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract: Efforts to improve the business climate in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province are still facing significant obstacles. Moreover, a healthy business climate is needed to create conditions conducive to hastening development, increasing the employment field, and adding to local revenue. In June-August 2006, SMERU conducted a study of the business climate in NTT, concentrating on four districts and one city in West Timor. The study aims to identify various government policies at the central, provincial, and district/city level, which are directly and indirectly related to market structure, the flow of goods, fee structures, and prices received by producers and traders of agricultural products. The study also examines the impact of various agricultural product charges on provincial and district/city local revenue. The information and data was gathered from various respondents, including producers (farmers, livestock producers, fishermen, and home industry operators); traders (intermediate traders to exporters); as well as relevant government offices and agencies. The main finding of the research is that district/city local governments in West Timor are still attempting to increase local revenue by imposing various charges on the trade of agricultural commodities, although the total charges are currently lower than the period prior to 1997. Forestry products and large livestock (mainly cattle) attract the most charges. The study made several other findings. Firstly, in an effort to avoid a central government regulation that limits the total charges, the NTT local government has endeavored to reinvent charges as third party contributions or administration fees. Secondly, although the impact of official charges on the local budget (APBD) is relatively small, it can trigger the emergence of various unofficial charges, or bribes. Thirdly, agricultural producers generally have small-scale enterprises and weak bargaining powers as selling prices are still determined by several big inter-island tradersthus forming a monopsony environment.

Keywords: business climate; charges; commodities; agriculture; local government; permits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q13 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.eaber.org/node/22540 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 301 [REDIRECT LOOP] Moved Permanently (http://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22540)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eab:tradew:22540

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Trade Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shiro Armstrong (shiro.armstrong@anu.edu.au).