Executives in Asia support Nobel award

JAKARTA (JP): A majority of Asian executives polled recently said the Nobel committee was justified in awarding this year's peace prize to East Timor Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and separatist leader Jose Ramos Horta.

In the latest Asian executives poll conducted by Far Eastern Economic Review and Asia Business News, 75.3 percent of respondents believed the award was deserved.

In sharp contrast, 58.3 percent of the poll's respondents of Indonesian nationality disagreed with the committee's decision to award the prize to Belo and Horta.

To the chagrin Jakarta officials the Nobel peace prize was awarded last month to Belo, a vocal critic of government policies in East Timor, and Horta who leads a small separatist movement for Timorese independence.

The poll also asked whether Japan and the European Union were justified in taking Indonesia to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the Timor "national car" project.

A whopping 70.6 percent said "yes".

However 71.4 percent of respondents in South Korea, where the car is being made, and 57.1 percent in the Philippines say the move is unjustified.

Oddly enough a majority of Indonesians supported the idea of taking the issue to the WTO. More than 60 percent of the Indonesian respondents said Japan and the European Union were justified in their move.

The weekly fax poll solicits responses from corporate executives in 10 Asian countries. (mds)