Big, small firms vow partnership

Big, small firms vow partnership

JAKARTA (JP): Representatives of conglomerates and small
enterprises agreed yesterday to end confrontation and build up
partnerships to strengthen Indonesia's competitiveness on the
global market.

Sofyan Wanandi, a spokesman for the Prasetya Mulya Group of
business tycoons, and Sri Edi Swasono, chairman of the Indonesian
Cooperatives Council, said in a seminar here yesterday that if
national business players oppose each other, they will be
weakened when Indonesia enters a free trade era next century.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which
Indonesia is a member, will liberalize trade among its members
under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) arrangement in 2003, while
Indonesia, as a developing member of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum, will have to liberate its trade and
investment regimes for APEC countries by the year 2020.

Swasono told the seminar that the partnership should be based
on a participatory basis, meaning that conglomerates should not
provide only funds for smaller businesses and cooperatives but
should also involve them in planning, actuating and evaluating
activities.

A seminar participant supported Swasono's remarks, saying that
the conglomerate owners, acting as experts, generally provide
financial assistance for small businesses without involving them
in planning activities.

Using an analogy to criticize the attitude of conglomerate
owners, he said that even a medical specialist always asks his
patients about their sufferings.

Swasono said cooperatives have wrongly been regarded as
unprofessional institutions which cannot take advantage of
existing opportunities and cannot implement technology.

A former member of the House of Representatives, R.K.
Sembiring Meliala, commented that the basis for cooperation in
business under the country's constitution has been wrongly
adapted as a "family system."

Swasono complained that he has never been invited by
conglomerate owners to hold discussions to plan any assistance
for small businesses.

Sofyan, also spokesman for about 100 conglomerate owners who
pledged in Bali in August to provide a portion of their annual
net profits for assisting smaller enterprises, said that
confrontations between small and larger businesses have resulted
in a waste of energy.

He explained that conglomerate owners actually have
established cooperation with Coordinating Minister for Industry
and Trade Hartarto and Minister of Cooperatives and Small
Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya to put the Bali pledge on the
assistance for smaller businesses into practice.

He also said partnerships have been set up with about 100
small businesses.

Sofyan said the conglomerate owners have appointed Ilyas, who
was also present at yesterday's meeting, as a coordinator of the
assistance program.

"A list of 2,500 small enterprises have been put forwarded to
us as prospective recipients of assistance," said Sofyan, who is
also chairman of the Gemala Group.

He added that next month the conglomerate owners will announce
their annual plans of partnership with smaller enterprises and
will make known the names of their partners.

"PT Bogasari Flour Mill, for example, plans to provide
technical assistance for bread shop owners in a bid to improve
the quality of their products," said Sofyan. (kod)

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