Thousands Work in Tobacco Industry
Tuesday, 03 April, 2012 | 17:42 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, YOGYAKARTA:Over 1,100 residents from Yogyakarta work at the Mitra Produksi Sigaret factory under PT HM Sampoerna. Most of the workers are female. Mitra Produksi Sigaret in Sewon is the fourth factory owned by the company.

"Mitra Produksi Sigaret’s role in encouraging and expanding provincial economic growth has benefited the public, particularly the workers," said Chris Nelson, PT HM Sampoerna’s head of regulatory/fiscal affairs and strategy, during the inauguration of the Mitra Produksi Sigaret factory in Bantul yesterday.

In Yogyakarta, there are currently four Mitra plants; two in Bantul, one in Kulon Progo and another one in Sleman, with 4,500 workers in total. “Nationwide, as many as 24.4 million people are involved in the cigarette industry,” said Sultan Hamengku Buwono X when officially inaugurating the plant.

Sultan said the cigarette ban should be done proportionally and be based on valid and fair data. He said that a recent damming article, which revealed that 400,000 premature deaths every year in the US were due to smoking, was used to justify tobacco regulations.

MUH SYAIFULLAH