Business and regional autonomy

Business and regional autonomy

Even before regional autonomy became a fact, fears had been
expressed by the business community that regional governments
would try to increase their revenues by issuing all kinds of tax
rulings and regulations. These fears have now become the reality
and consequently, last Wednesday, the Indonesian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (Kadin) presented their complaints to
President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Naturally, no region wants to see all its wealth siphoned off
to Jakarta while the land is ravaged and only waste is left. That
is what happened under the so-called contracts of work in the
past. Those contracts practically ignored the interests of the
regions in question.

The important thing to do in this case is to review the
existing law and give the Ministry of Home Affairs more time --
which is two weeks at present -- to consider whether or not to
endorse any regional regulations concerning this matter. It might
also be worth considering whether endorsement by the Ministry of
Home Affairs is needed, or whether a draft regional regulation
should be declared automatically void if fails to obtain
ministerial approval. In this case, however, the impression of
foot-dragging by the home ministry must be avoided to prevent the
regional administrations from stagnating.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta