Centralizing investment licensing a bad idea
Below is a comment I left on the Jakarta Post website, in response to the above article. Section in red was deleted by JP.
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Then president Megawati Soekarnoputri tried to centralize the licensing of foreign and domestic investment in the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) in 2004, but failed because of the strong bureaucratic jealousy between government institutions.
It was in fact Theo Tioman, the disgraced former head of the BKPM, who issued a decree in (from memory) June 2004 that effectively backtracked on the decentralisation of the investment licencing function of that body that occurred in 2001.
The official reason for this was the fragmented and inconsistent application of BPKM policies by the regional offices of the BKPM (BKPMD).
The real reason was that Theo wanted to recentralise the lucrative unofficial fees that have to be paid in order to obtain an investment permit (something that remains unchanged under Theo's successor).
Going off in a strikingly different direction, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced plans in May 2005 to dilute the function of the BKPM into simply a promotion and company registry office, and to decentralize investment licensing in the spirit of local autonomy.
You may find that in fact this idea was from former coordinating minister for the economy, Adurizal Bakrie, and had very little or no support from any other quarter in the government.
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Then president Megawati Soekarnoputri tried to centralize the licensing of foreign and domestic investment in the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) in 2004, but failed because of the strong bureaucratic jealousy between government institutions.
It was in fact Theo Tioman, the disgraced former head of the BKPM, who issued a decree in (from memory) June 2004 that effectively backtracked on the decentralisation of the investment licencing function of that body that occurred in 2001.
The official reason for this was the fragmented and inconsistent application of BPKM policies by the regional offices of the BKPM (BKPMD).
The real reason was that Theo wanted to recentralise the lucrative unofficial fees that have to be paid in order to obtain an investment permit (something that remains unchanged under Theo's successor).
Going off in a strikingly different direction, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced plans in May 2005 to dilute the function of the BKPM into simply a promotion and company registry office, and to decentralize investment licensing in the spirit of local autonomy.
You may find that in fact this idea was from former coordinating minister for the economy, Adurizal Bakrie, and had very little or no support from any other quarter in the government.