Judul: Competitiveness of Indonesian Crude Palm Oil and the Effect of Export Tax on its Performance in the World Market
Abstrak: The objectives of this research include: (1) to find out the export competitiveness of the Indonesian CPO in the world market; (2) to assess the impacts of CPO export tax on Indonesian CPO industry. In addition it will assess the effect of exchange rate on Indonesian CPO industry; and (3) to propose strategies that can improve the competitiveness of Indonesian CPO in the world market. Indonesia was found to be most competitive in the CPO export market than any other country, especially in India and China but it faces strong competition from Malaysia. Both Indonesia and Malaysia have comparative advantage of exporting CPO to China and India. Export tax was negatively related to mature area of oil palm plantation, production, export, and domestic price of CPO and positively related to CPO consumption and stock. The export tax policy benefitted the domestic consumers of CPO. Clearly, the export tax policy reduces competitiveness of the Indonesian palm oil industry and also hurts producers of CPO. The foreign exchange rate effect was discovered to be positively related to domestic CPO price, export and consumption but negatively related to production and stock. Alternative strategies to be utilized include: (1) improvement in the promotion, negotiation and enhancement of bilateral relationships between Indonesia and China to improve infrastructure; (2) Indonesia must cooperate and work closely with Malaysia to enable Indonesia to learn from Malaysia how to efficiently produce CPO; (3) development of palm oil projects that can be integrated with other industrial production programs through the revitalization of plantation systems, rejuvenation and rehabilitation of existing farm product; and (4) creation of a conducive atmosphere for investment, permit ownership of plantations by individuals, reducing import cost on farm machines and implements, provide incentives on imports of agricultural machines to improve the competitiveness of Indonesian CPO in the world market. It is recommended that export tax formulation with well considered and sound justifications is needed and from the study, 11.13 percent export tax on CPO was recommended.
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Judul: Price Transmission and The Effect of Indonesia’s Export Tax on Crude Palm Oil Prices
Abstrak: The crop sector serves as one of the sources of foreign exchange in Indonesia and also contributes to the development of the Indonesian economy. The economic potential of CPO commodity in Indonesia has a huge impact by providing around 5 million employments within the agribusiness palm oil system. Indonesia is the biggest producer and exporter of CPO in the world, followed by Malaysia. As the largest CPO producer in the world, Indonesia should have control over the price and quantity of CPO. Over the past decade, there have been fluctuations in the global price of CPO. These variations in global CPO price are likely to affect the local CPO price as well. As the price of the world CPO fluctuates, Indonesia lacks alternative markets for its local production of CPO. This has resulted in a unstable in the tax revenue of CPO in Indonesia. To solve this, Goverrnment have implemented a Indonesia’s export tax on CPO in order to maintain stability in the income of the CPO producers. The aims of this research are: (1) to assess the market integration and the price transmission between the international CPO market and the domestic CPO market of Indonesia, (2) to analyze the effects of the Indonesian export tax of CPO on the domestic and on the international prices. This study uses secondary time series data that is obtained from relevant institutions. To investigate the price transmission in international CPO markets with respect to the effects of Indonesia’s export tax, several steps of this analysis consist in examining the data by using e.g. the Unit Root Test, the co-integration Test, and estimation of the Error Correction Model (ECM). The results of the price transmission analysis show that the domestic CPO market of Indonesia is integrated with the international market. In the long run, a fluctuation of price in international market will be responded by the domestic CPO market in Indonesia. In addition, although the imposition of the export tax of CPO in Indonesia makes it possible to prevent the instability of the domestic price of CPO, the level of influence is still small. It can be inferred that these policy is effective to increase government revenue as a fiscal instrument with the mininum damage to the farmers or producers of CPO.
Keyword: CPO, ECM, Export Tax, Market Integration, Price Transmission

Judul: Rancang Bangun Alat Pengukur Intensitas Hujan Dengan Metode Jungkat-Jungkit Berbasis Sensor Medan Magnet UGN3503.
Abstrak: This research has been done on making rain intensity gauge using a magnetic field sensor UGN3503. Sensor UGN3503 can detect the magnetic field on its surface. The sensor is placed above a seesaw that was inserted magnet. The magnet used is Neodymium magnet is a type of permanent magnet with stongest magnetic field compared to other types of fixed magnetic field magnets. When the seesaw discards rainwater, the distance between sensor and magnet is closer and causing the keluaran voltage of the sensor increases. The keluaran voltage of the sensor is compared with a reference voltage by the comparator so that the sensor keluaran data is in digital form and ready to be processed. As the processing and sending of data used ATmega16 microcontroller, microcontroller take sensor data once every 100 ms and display data to the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 16x2. Every 30 minutes the data is processed into the rain intensity is then stored into a computer.
Keyword: rain intensity, seesaw, comparator, microcontroller, sensor UGN3503.