REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NUSA DUA -- Indonesia faced numerous challenges in tobacco control to protect children from its negative effects. Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise stated during the 12th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (12th APACT) in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Thursday.

"It is disappointing, as many Indonesian children smoke. We have to do something," Yembise remarked.

Indonesia is the third-largest cigarette consumer after China and Russia. Based on the cigarette industry's internal documents, the minister noted that the industry had targeted teenagers to become beginner smokers.

Young people, who smoke, are contributors to the tobacco industry's revenue. By targeting children to become beginner smokers, the tobacco industry has violated children's rights, she affirmed.

"Beginner smokers in Indonesia are getting younger, and the number is increasing," the minister remarked.

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Earlier, Chairman of the 12th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT) Arifin Panigoro emphasized that the tobacco trap is a real threat that all nations of the world need to watch out for. "Tobacco is a threat to our children, teenagers, and nation," Panigoro remarked at the opening of the 12th APACT in Nusa Dua, Bali, Wednesday.

Panigoro stated that several countries in the world had applied strict tobacco control rules to protect children and adolescents as the future of the nation. Hence, tobacco control activists from 29 Asia-Pacific countries are in Nusa Dua to attend the 12th APACT to do more to protect children and adolescents from the threat of the tobacco epidemic.

"People from 29 countries are present, not just to discuss but to also act," Panigoro noted.

According to Panigoro, civil society and the governments of countries of the world must act to control tobacco to encourage the ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of cigarettes, and the imposition of high taxes on tobacco, among others.

"In Indonesia, the price of cigarettes is a quarter of the price in Malaysia," he pointed out.

APACT was first held in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1989. The last meeting was held in Beijing, China, in 2016.

The 12th APACT was held in Nusa Dua, Bali, and chaired by Panigoro. The host in Indonesia is the National Tobacco Control Committee along with several other tobacco control support organizations.

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