Businesspeople see optimism in Susilo's economic plans

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta

The economic presentation made by presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a dialog with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has lifted optimism for the economy, a business leader said.

"Susilo answered questions from businessmen well, with clear target figures and efficient policies. Although he was too optimistic about them, businessmen thought that Susilo has at least tried to raise business optimism," said businessman Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), a powerful lobbying group.

Improving the business community's confidence in the economy is seen as crucial to the next administration's effort to revive investment, which is badly needed to accelerate economic growth to the pre-crisis level of 7 percent. Investor confidence in the country has been dwindling due to various factors, from legal uncertainty to labor disputes, from red tape to poor implementation of regional autonomy.

For the past few years, economic growth has been driven by strong domestic consumption as investment and export declined.

Susilo and incumbent Megawati Soekarnoputri participated in Monday's dialog. The former outlined a brighter economic plan through a host of economic strategies including tax reform, corruption eradication and improving the investment climate, while the latter focused mainly on her success in stabilizing macroeconomic indicators without providing clear strategies for the next five years, if she was reelected.

Susilo said if his economic strategies were implemented, he would project a faster economic growth of 7.6 percent by 2009, with unemployment halved to 5.1 percent, poverty rate cut down to 8.7 percent and an increase in income per capita to US$1,731.

Sofjan said Megawati could have countered Susilo's policies if she had laid out her economic plans in more detail.

"We have to acknowledge that Megawati has successfully improved and stabilized the country's macroeconomic indicators, but her future economic policies remain unclear, with several unanswered questions from businessmen," he said.

Susilo, the front runner in the race, will run against Megawati in the Sept. 20 presidential runoff.

Several businessmen who attended the dialog were observed leaving the dialog early during Megawati's economic presentation, saying that the proposed plans were unclear and focused more on the faults of her predecessors in not resolving the prolonged economic and political crises of the late 1990s.

Kadin chairman Mohamad S. Hidayat, on the other hand, criticized Susilo's economic targets as unrealistic.

"Susilo is too optimistic. His target figures are unrealistic, such as the reduction on unemployment rate. He can achieve the target if his economic team can work a miracle, but I doubt that," he said.

Hidayat explained that, in order for the unemployment rate to decline from the current 10.1 to 5.1 percent in 2009, the economy needed to grow by an average of at least 6 percent annually.