Cabinet's economic team strives to bolster exports

Cabinet's economic team strives to bolster exports

JAKARTA (JP): The Cabinet's new economic team has embarked on
what it calls a concerted drive to bolster exports, which the
team envisions as the second engine driving the country's
economic recovery, after private consumption.

The team, led by chief economic minister Rizal Ramli, met on
Thursday with major exporters, bankers and analysts to discuss
removing barriers to exports.

"Promoting exports is the second point of our 10-point
economic recovery acceleration program, which has been outlined
in the revised letter of intent to the International Monetary
Fund," Rizal said.

Exports, he added, would be boosted by optimizing the 40
percent excess capacity in the manufacturing industry and using
excess liquidity in the banking industry to finance international
trade.

"We will work all-out to improve the business climate and give
exporters whatever assistance is possible within the regulatory
framework, to enable them to take the greatest advantage of the
rupiah's competitive exchange rate," Rizal said.

"Our doors therefore are always open to businesspeople who
need to bring up any problems they encounter in the export
sector," Minister of Industry and Trade Luhut B. Pandjaitan
added.

Also in attendance at the meeting were Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA) chairman and Junior Minister of
National Economic Restructuring Cacuk Sudarijanto, Bambang
Soetrisno from PT Apac Inti Corp., Marimutu Sinivasan and
Marimutu Manimaren from the Texmaco-Polysindo group, Rachmat
Gobel from PT Nasional Gobel and executives from dozens of other
companies and state banks.

Luhut said the economic ministers welcomed suggestions and
advice from businesspeople on how to increase exports.

"I am highly confident that with greater cooperation and
coordination between the public and private sectors, we will be
able to expand our monthly exports, which in July already
exceeded US$5.3 billion," Luhut said.

Luhut added that he was not embarrassed to say he often asked
businesspeople for advice in fine-tuning policy instruments to
bolster exports. "I am not a trade expert. And I should admit
that as a facilitator, I often pick the brains of experienced
exporters, including Mr. Sinivasan here, for valuable input in
making policy," Luhut said.

Rizal said his team would coordinate with other state
institutions, including IBRA and the central bank, in the drive
to strengthen exports.

Such coordination and cooperation is crucial because exporting
involves multisectoral operations, including bank lending
regulations, he said.

Rizal also spoke about a meeting his team held with the
presidents of the country's largest debtor companies on Tuesday
to discuss concerted policy actions to accelerate the economic
recovery.

Almost all of the largest conglomerates, including the Salim
Group, are now either under the ownership, supervision or
management of IBRA pending the restructuring of their bad loans.

"I told the presidents, including Anthony Salim of the Salim
Group, to continue their best efforts to improve the value of
their businesses. I urged them to jump onto the economic recovery
wagon that has started rolling, otherwise they will be left
behind.

"But I also warned them to settle their debts with the
government, otherwise I will make them pariahs," Rizal said.

The minister said his team also had met with the central bank
board of governors and had scheduled a fortnightly brainstorming
conference to work out effective policies.

Businesspeople at the meeting raised common problems
encountered by enterprises, especially since 1998. These include
political and security concerns, arbitrary land claims by locals,
licensing red tape, labor problems and securing trade financing
loans for those companies which have yet to restructure their
debts with IBRA.

Rizal admitted labor issues would become a major problem in
the business sector within the next five years, especially
considering that more than 60 trade unions had sprung up during
the reform era.

"I know not all of them are genuine trade unions bent on
fighting for the rights of workers. Some of them may also be
organizations set up only to squeeze businesspeople for money.

"Therefore, my team has scheduled a meeting with trade union
leaders on Monday to ask for their cooperation, which is vital
for sustaining the nascent recovery," Rizal said.

"Be assured, the present Cabinet is a no-nonsense Cabinet.
True, my team includes former analysts like myself who tend to
analyze things endlessly. But there are also real doers among us
such as Luhut," Rizal added.

The minister also said over the next month or so he would
continue to talk and give speeches as part of a crusade to
restore confidence and optimism, without which "we will never get
out of this crisis".

"We are actually very rich in resources. We are truly a great
nation, but we now seem to be a very pessimistic people. Even the
perception of our journalists is sometimes more pessimistic than
the foreign perception of our country," he said.(vin)