Indonesia drops foreign ownership clause from plantations bill

JAKARTA:  Indonesia has approved a plantations bill that aims to maximise land usage and open up the sector to smallholders, a government official said on Tuesday, with a controversial foreign ownership clause dropped from the final version.

The draft of the bill, which was drawn up by members of Indonesia's parliament, would have retroactively limited foreign ownership of plantations to no more than 30 percent, down from the current maximum of 95 percent.