Foreign firms ask for increased security

Foreign firms ask for increased security

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign business leaders meeting with President
B.J. Habibie yesterday said they wanted to see greater security
for their operations and more economic incentives.

The chief executive officers from 30 foreign investment
companies said Indonesia remained attractive for business, but
the government needed to give more evidence that the security
situation in the country has improved before it could convince
foreign investors to return to Indonesia.

"The security situation must be reflected on the streets, in
the harbors and in areas near our factories," said Eric Chi,
president of PT Pou Chen Indonesia which produces Nike and Adidas
shoes from its factory in Serang, West Java.

G. Ito, president of textile manufacturer and exporter PT
Vonex Indonesia, said his major clients have turned to Thailand
or China because they doubted his company could meet delivery
schedules because of the uncertain situation here.

Sri Urip, president of the giant consumer product manufacturer
PT Unilever Indonesia, gave Habibie a list of complaints and
suggestions to restimulate consumer goods distribution and supply
infrastructure.

"The security to reside and to operate here remains a big
issue," Sri remarked.

When Habibie pointed out that he owned shares in the publicly
listed Unilever Indonesia, Sri responded: "Bapak, you're the
biggest individual shareholder."

The meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office was also
attended by Armed Forces Commander/Minister of Defense and
Security Gen. Wiranto, State Minister of Investment Hamzah Haz
and Minister of Industry and Trade Rahardi Ramelan.

Chi said his company was not affected by the May riots because
all his 23,000 workers guarded the factory. But many foreign
buyers were now hesitating about coming to Indonesia because of
the unstable situation.

Some of the CEOs also asked for more economic incentives.

S.A. Issenmann, president of Nestle Indonesia proposed cuts in
import duties for raw materials, especially for milk products.

Sri said people had been complaining at the soaring prices of
Unilever products, particularly detergents, soaps and
toothpastes.

She said that Unilever had continued its normal production
levels but shortages had developed nevertheless because some of
the products were being smuggled to neighboring Singapore and
Malaysia by people to take advantage of the higher prices there.

Habibie promised to look into their complaints and
suggestions, including lower import tariffs. He said he would do
his best to cultivate a more favorable investment climate.

"We are a team here. We're all presidents, I am president of
202 million people and you are the president of your companies,"
said Habibie.

Rahardi told reporters later that the government would
seriously consider all those proposals and acknowledged that the
government should give more facilities to downstream industries.

"We will give greater (priority) to developing and protecting
exporters. But this problem needs to be discussed further with
the director-general of tax," he said. (prb)