Country tour seen effective for international promotion

Country tour seen effective for international promotion

JAKARTA (JP): The recent on-the-road tour of a government
delegation to several international business centers gained
positive and warm welcomes from international businesspersons,
Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad says.

"The first country road show was very beneficial for promoting
the Indonesian economic development among international
businesses," he told reporters after meeting with President
Soeharto at the Bina Graha here yesterday.

Mar'ie said the effectiveness of the tour was proven with so
many questions about rules and regulations for investment in
Indonesia, including one on when Indonesia lifts the current 49
percent limit on foreign ownership of shares listed on the
capital market.

The minister recently led a group of Indonesian delegates on a
two week on-the-road tour to London, New York, Boston and Hong
Kong to promote investment potentials in Indonesia in meetings
with international fund managers and investors.

Mar'ie said the tour was meant to publicize Government
Regulation PP No. 20/1994, which allows foreigners to control the
whole equity of investment projects in the first years of
operation and to build and operate infrastructure facilities,
including ports, airports and roads.

He said the tour provided information to foreign
businesspersons and investors about the privatization programs of
state-owned companies and wider access for long term investment
through foreign direct investments or joint ventures.

Stimulating

Mar'ie said with the possible increasing allocation of foreign
investors' assets here, the tour was also expected to stimulate
foreign indirect investment to enter domestic capital market.

"We need to put such a tour into our annual program because we
got a strong impression from our discussions with several
international businessmen that their understanding on Indonesia
is still limited," Mar'ie said.

In London, Mar'ie held a meeting with Britain's ministers of
finance and trade to discuss increasing economic and financial
relationships between Indonesia and Britain.

In the United States, besides discussing the same topics with
the U.S. minister of finance, he also discussed the follow-up of
the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial
meeting in Hawaii and preparations for the next meeting in
Indonesia in November.

Mar'ie said the delegates had an intensive meeting with U.S.
businesspersons about Indonesia's investment rules and economic
outlooks.

Mar'ie said he also attended a ministerial meeting of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), which discussed the importance
of increasing the role of IMF and the World Bank in stabilizing
the world's monetary system and currency exchange rates, which
currently depend mostly on the Group of Seven (G-7) industrial
countries.

The meeting also discussed improving the private sector as a
catalyst for economic development, he said. (02)