KUALA LUMPUR - Large companies based near fire-prone areas in Indonesia may be called to help local communities prevent haze, the New Straits Times reported on Wednesday.

Reporting on the ongoing regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur to tackle the problem of haze, the Malaysian daily quoted the director of the Global Environment Centre, Mr Faizal Parish, as saying that one proposal to be tabled at the meeting was for firms to pool their resources against forest fires.

The Global Environment Centre is a Malaysia-based non-governmental organisation and Mr Faizal was a participant at the 15th Meeting of the Technical Working Group on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

He said that while many companies had taken precaution against burning on their own land, smaller incidents of fire in other areas had remained unchecked.