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: Dampak pajak ekspor crude palm oil terhadap industri minyak goreng indonesia
Abstrak: Oil palm industry has a very important role to perform in development of Indonesian national economy. These commodities, and specifically Crude Palm Oil (CPO), have contributed immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Indonesia, increased international and national trade, created various forms of employment, led to growth in production and areal development, and improved the living standards as well as the financial status of the local people. Indonesia is one of the highest CPO producers in the world. The world CPO production has grown steadily and relatively faster as compared to other oil yielding crops. Export growth of Indonesian CPO can be attributed to three factors: world demand factor, product and market effects and competitiveness effects. The world demand factor reflects growth in exports that can be attributed to rising international demand, i.e. the stronger global import demand, the stronger the country’s export growth. Due to the importance of the crude palm oil to the Indonesian economy, and the world over, the Indonesian government decided to impose export tax on its CPO. Therefore, the goal of the research is to find out the impact of the CPO export tax on Indonesian cooking oil industry. The findings of the study show that export tax had been proven to be effective in controlling domestic cooking oil price, which otherwise would provide the supply more of the raw material for domestic cooking oil. With this policy, the government had been successful to keep the cooking oil price down when the world CPO price increased. The implementation of tax policy should be considered to improve the competitiveness of Indonesian CPO in the world market, and allocate the government revenue to develop the supply side of Indonesian oil palm industry. There should be an increase in investment to improve the oil palm productivity.
Keyword: Crude Palm Oil, Export Tax, Cooking Oil

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.