21.11.2019 (New Straits Times Online) - KUALA LUMPUR: To further enhance palm oil sustainability, the government has listed four policies which include mapping out the country’s oil palm plantation areas and make it available for public access, Ministry of Primary Industries secretary-general Datuk Tan Yew Chong said.

He said the policy had been endorsed by the Cabinet and was expected to be out in the next few months.

“We want to make it by the first quarter of 2020 and as of now about six states are ready,” he told reporters at the International Palm Oil Congress and Exhibition (PIPOC) 2019 hosted by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board here, on Tuesday.

Tan ensured that the move would not in any way jeopardise the country’s safety.

“The mapping is only for the public to see the oil palm plantation areas, at least they know where the reforestation (areas) are,” he said.

The other three policies are capping the total of oil palm cultivated areas to 6.5 million hectares, no new planting of oil palm in peatland areas and ban on conversion of forest reserves for oil palm cultivation.

Meanwhile, Tan also said that Indonesia and Malaysia, both member countries of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries, will also establish an anti-palm oil fund, whereby it would be used to counter-attack the discrimination against palm oil, especially by the European Union campaign.

“We will come out with the mechanism but first of all it will be based on our programmes and activities,” he said but did not elaborate further.

On the move by the French government to remove tax breaks for the use of palm oil as a biofuel, he expressed hope that the proposal would still be accepted in the next national assembly.

The French Parliament on Friday voted to remove tax breaks (for the use of palm oil as a biofuel), just a day after a ruling in support of maintaining the advantage.

“However, the delay (tax breaks) is only for Paris, which we call a member state...we can tackle the country because there are internal policy, but for the Delegated Act, to restrict and ban palm oil biofuel altogether by 2030, we need to tackle the three layers – the European Union (EU) council, EU Parliament and EU Commission,” he added.

The Delegated Act is discriminatory against the economies of developing nations in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America which produce palm oil.