RI will need int'l help beyond 1999: Downer<\/p>\n
CANBERRA (AP): Indonesia will continue to need international
\nfinancial aid \"over the coming year and beyond,\" Australian
\nForeign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Downer, who visited Indonesia last week, said in a speech that
\nPresident B.J. Habibie and his government are facing very
\ndifficult times.<\/p>\n
\"Undertaking a once-in-a-generation political transition and a
\npolitical reform process in the midst of a severe regional and
\neconomic downturn is a daunting task,\" Downer said.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia will continue to need international financial
\nsupport over the coming year and beyond to allow the government
\nto see through its promise of fresh parliamentary and
\npresidential elections,\" he added.<\/p>\n
But Downer also said the steps the international community is
\nalready taking to help Indonesia provide solid grounds for
\noptimism.<\/p>\n
\"Ideally these will, through the creation of a broad-based
\nleadership, establish the basis for a renewal of investor
\nconfidence and economic revival in the long term,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Downer, who was addressing Australian exporters in Melbourne,
\nsaid the East Asian region as a whole was still facing very real
\nchallenges.<\/p>\n
But he urged business not to lose faith in the region.<\/p>\n
\"It is important to ensure that the previously excessive
\nrhetoric regarding the East Asian economic miracle does not swing
\ntoo far the other way and become overly pessimistic,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Australia has pledged US$1 billion to an International
\nMonetary Fund (IMF) rescue package for Indonesia.<\/p>\n
It has also stepped up bilateral aid to its northern neighbor
\nsince the regional crisis began last August.<\/p>\n
Indonesia wants the United States to contribute directly to an
\nadditional $4 billion to $6 billion rescue package the IMF is
\nputting together to help the Asian nation face a severe economic
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has
\nalready been promised a $43 billion IMF bailout that is being
\npaid in installments.<\/p>\n
The United States, Japan and Australia agreed to participate
\nin the major bailout package with so-called second line of
\ndefense funds.<\/p>\n
Indonesia expects its economy to contract by 13 percent to 15
\npercent this year, the first time the economy has shrunk since
\n1963.<\/p>\n
The country's currency, the rupiah, has lost 80 percent of its
\nvalue against the dollar.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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