Business unaffected by blast, focus still on election<\/p>\n
Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Business leaders said that the impact on the economy of last
\nweek's bomb blast outside the Australian embassy would be
\nminimal, with business players continuing to focus on the Sept.
\n20 presidential election.<\/p>\n
\"Most investors and businessmen will wait until after the
\npresidential election, and then assess the newly elected
\npresident before deciding what to do,\" said businessman Sofyan
\nWanandi, who is also the chairman of the National Economic
\nRecovery Committee (KPEN).<\/p>\n
Sofyan explained that after the election, businesses would
\nenter a \"cooling-off period\" before deciding whether to invest in
\nthe country next year or wait for another year.<\/p>\n
However, he urged the authorities to work hard to quickly
\ncatch the perpetrators of the bombing so as to prevent the
\nreoccurrence of similar incidents in the future.<\/p>\n
He was speaking during a seminar on Tuesday titled \"Post-
\nelection Business Prospects,\"<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri will have her work cut out
\nfor her against her former chief security minister Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono, who has been leading in recent polls.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, property magnate Ciputra also implied that the
\nimpact of the blast would be very limited as people, especially
\nbusinesspeople, had become more rational.<\/p>\n
\"People can see that the attack was more about international
\nthan domestic issues,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"If the presidential election (runoff) goes ahead smoothly as
\nwith the previous two (elections), I believe we will have a
\nbetter investment climate,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that the property market remained very attractive as
\ncurrent macroeconomic conditions were far better than compared to
\nthe pre-crisis period before 1997.<\/p>\n
Ciputra said that in the last five years his group's property
\nsales had tripled compared to the pre-crisis period.<\/p>\n
Separately, National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas)
\nhead Kwik Kian Gie said that the blast had had no significant
\neffect on Indonesian economy, with business going on as usual.<\/p>\n
Kwik said that foreign investors in the country had not been
\nnegatively influenced, and would stay here as long as there was
\nmoney to be made.<\/p>\n
The country has suffered from a lack of investment over the
\npast several years as a result of various factors, including a
\nlack of legal certainty, security fears, labor disputes and the
\nchaotic implementation of regional autonomy.<\/p>\n
This lack of investment has caused the country's economy to
\ngrow at a mediocre rate of around 4 percent per year over the
\npast several years.<\/p>\n
Before the 1997 Asian economic crisis, investment was one of
\nthe country's main economic engines. Now it accounts for less
\nthan 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP),
\nwith domestic consumption contributing more than 75 percent.<\/p>\n
The government recently announced a 34 percent year-on-year
\ndrop to US$3.05 billion in approved foreign direct investment in
\nthe first half of the year.<\/p>\n
A suicide bomb attack at the Australian embassy in Kuningan,
\nSouth Jakarta, last week killed nine people and injured at least
\n185 others. The attack put brief pressure on the rupiah and stock
\nmarket.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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