Foreign investment drop temporary: Minister Sanyoto

Foreign investment drop temporary: Minister Sanyoto

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Investment Promotion Sanyoto
Sastrowardoyo said yesterday there was a 36-percent drop in
foreign investment approvals in the first five months this year
due to the recent election, but said the trend was temporary.

Speaking after installing new officials at his office,
Sanyoto, who is also Chairman of the Investment Coordinating
Board, said the trend was "nothing to worry about" because it
happened every five years at general election time.

He said the election had caused foreign investment approvals
to drop 36 percent in terms of volume and 25.5 percent in value
compared to last year's first five months.

But he said the drop was less than the 40-percent decline
around the time of the last election in 1992.

"Foreign investment approvals in 1992 dropped 40 percent
compared to 1991, so there have been worse times," he said.

The figures cited by Sanyoto did not cover investments
licensed in the financial, service, oil and gas sectors and were
related only to licensed investment commitments not to actual or
realized investments.

"This is a five-year cycle for us. It happens everywhere else
in the world at election times. Businesses wait to see who will
win and what will happen," he said.

Sanyoto said that during the January to May period, foreign
investment approvals totaled US$14.4 billion and domestic
investment approvals Rp 59 trillion (US$24.58 billion).

He said the situation would recover by October or November, as
in the last election year.

Sanyoto said this year's drop was insignificant compared to
the rapid growth in foreign investment approvals over the last
five years.

He said that during the last Five-Year Development Plan (1989
to 1994), total foreign investment approvals reached $44 billion.

"But now -- in the fourth year of the current (1994 to 1999)
Five-Year Development Plan -- we have already licensed $108
billion in new foreign investment commitments," he said.

"This means that even if until the end of this year we have no
additional foreign investment approvals, what we have achieved in
this Five-Year Development Plan is already twice as much as in
the last," he said.

He said that during the current development plan, his office
wanted to approve more than Rp 44 trillion in foreign and
domestic investments a year, or Rp 244 trillion in five years.

Sanyoto yesterday installed Kuntoro Mangkusubroto as the
Investment Coordinating Board's deputy for planning; Adhi Sunarto
as the Sanyoto's assistant for national corporate development;
and Mardjono as second assistant for national corporate
development. (pwn)

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