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)