Eka Tjipta's success comes under the New Order
Eka Tjipta's success comes under the New Order
JAKARTA (JP): Tycoon Eka Tjipta Widjaja acknowledged yesterday that his success in building his business empire was attributed, in part at least, to the political stability of the New Order administration.
"I started my business 58 years ago but I have reaped my success during the last 25 years, after the New Order government ensured a cool business climate as well as political and economical stability," Eka Tjipta told a seminar on small business, organized by the Palapa Nusantara Foundation.
The New Order government started in 1967 when the Provisional People Consultative Assembly expelled the late Sukarno from the presidency and appointed Soeharto to assume the position.
Eka Tjipta noted that his steady success was not a result of collusion with bureaucrats but by the hard work of 58 years of doing business.
The issue of collusion between businessmen and bureaucrats has drawn wide media coverage since the revealing of a US$480 million bank scam which involved businessman Eddy Tansil and a number of executives of the state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia.
Eka Tjipta said that instead of collusion, he always tried to build confidence from his partners, such as banks, fund managers and investors in stock markets.
Currently five of his companies are listed on local stock exchanges, including PT Bank Internasional Indonesia, PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper, PT Tjiwi Kimia, PT SMART and PT Duta Pertiwi.
He also said that he has allocated one percent of the profits from his companies to support the development of small enterprises and cooperatives.
Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya hailed yesterday the participation of large companies in helping the smaller ones.
He said that the government will regulate the partnership between the large and small companies in a law on small enterprises, which is currently being drafted.
The government is expected to submit the bill to the House of Representatives for deliberation later this year, he said.(rid)