Capital market has new chairman

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad replaced the chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) yesterday, only one day after President Soeharto inaugurated the Jakarta Stock Exchange's new automated trading system.

I Putu Ary Suta, formerly the head of Bapepam's Corporate Finance Bureau, will replace Bacelius Ruru as chairman.

Ruru, who headed Bapepam for about two and a half years, was appointed as the new director general in charge of state companies, replacing Martiono Hadianto.

Martiono was appointed as an expert assistant to the finance minister for regional economic and financial relations.

Mar'ie said after the ceremony that many efforts have been made to further develop the domestic stock market on par with other stock exchanges in the region.

"These efforts include the enactment on Monday of a new capital market law and the inauguration on Tuesday of the automated trading system at the Jakarta stock exchange," Mar'ie said.

And soon, he added, the government will prepare a number of new stock market regulations to implement the new law.

The JSX will introduce remote trading next year to allow investors in the provinces to make transactions on the exchange, Mar'ie said.

"With all these developments and facilities, we hope our stock markets will be on the same level with other exchanges in the region," he said.

Currently Indonesia has two stock markets -- the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) and the Surabaya Stock Exchange (SSE) in Surabaya, East Java, both run by private companies.

On the occasion, Mar'ie also inaugurated several new commissioners and supervisors of state companies, including Dahlan Sutalaksana for PT Asuransi Jiwasraya, Tax Director General Fuad Bawazier for PT Bank Bumi Daya, Marzuki Usman for PT Bank Dagang Negara and Soemitro Maskun for PT Taspen, the civil servant pension fund. (31)