Jakarta. Singapore will share data on companies linked to the forest fires with Indonesia as both governments seek to follow the money to address the bad bout of haze. 

Their foreign ministers — Indonesia’s Arrmanatha Nasir and Singapore’s Vivian Balakrishnan — held closed-door talks that lasted for almost two hours in Jakarta on Tuesday amid a widening rift over haze, gas export reductions, and offhand remarks.

Speaking to the press afterwards, Arrmanatha revealed that Singapore had pitched the data-sharing — something that Jakarta sees as a “valuable opportunity”.

“We discussed establishing a joint task force on strengthening business responsibility. It will link information sharing, financial intelligence, and cross-border evidence gathering with, and where possible, hopefully asset recovery,” Arrmanatha explained.

Armmanatha said that following the money trail the companies have left behind is an imperative, citing that the profits — just like smoke — can “cross borders”.

Balakrishnan gave his word that Singapore is prepared to “use an even wider range of legal, regulatory, and economic measures to deter future violations by companies”. This will apply to the Singapore-based firms. He went on to say that Singapore had agreed to the joint task force.

“[It] will ensure that there is a very close coordination of actions and sharing of information. … We expect the deterrence impact of this joint task force to make a difference,” Balakrishnan said.

The city-state’s National Environment Agency (NEA) has rolled out notices to the 10 Singapore-based firms which they claimed to have contributed to the smog. Some of their initials are BAP, BKN, and SAA. 

The bad haze — which also choked Malaysia and even the Philippines — had originated from Sumatra and Kalimantan forest fires. At home, President Prabowo Subianto has ordered tougher action against companies implicated in the blaze. Arrmanatha told Balakrishnan that “hundreds of individuals and over 50 corporations have been and are being investigated and prosecuted”. Just recently, the Indonesian police named three unnamed foreign-investment firms as suspects. 

“We will use the full force of the law to make sure those who profit from fire must answer for the fire,” Arrmanatha said.

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