Foreign investors

Foreign investors

The address delivered by John Arnold, chairman of the British
Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, on Jan. 18 at Hotel Sahid Jaya
in Jakarta was published in The Jakarta Post on Jan. 28 and Jan.
29: Attracting new investment in Indonesia.

I was grateful to the Post for printing this important
address. The speech gave so many tips worthy of comment and
quotation that it will have to suffice to quote just a number of
these tips for immediate comment.

First of all, the prediction was made that some day Indonesia,
abounding in natural resources, would be one of the richest
countries in the world.

However, it must be remembered that similar sentiments have
often been intimated by other observers. As usual it is not
surprising when an anomaly unveils itself to dash such ideas.
This is evidenced by an assertion made by the speaker himself,
although he was referring to Indonesia's image. In his words,
Indonesia's international image is regrettably one of a bankrupt,
lawless country on the brink of disintegration.

Consequently, it seems futile to make such self-complacent and
fanciful predictions as foreseeing Indonesia becoming one of the
richest countries in the world. We cannot escape the harsh
reality that as long as the quality of education is neglected and
schools uncared for, it will be impossible to raise the morals of
the country.

And this will undoubtedly have an impact on efforts to combat
corruption and eradicate poverty.

Touching on the topic of corruption, Arnold defined it as a
cancer which eats into the very fabric of society. It is
condemned as distorting business decisions, resulting in the
serious misallocation of resources.

The rampant corruption within Indonesia's bureaucracy resulted
in a British company making five years of painstaking efforts at
costly high-level negotiations only to barely begin an
infrastructure project in Indonesia.

An identical project by the same company in a country in west
Africa was negotiated, financed and completed within six months.
This is in sharp contrast to the five-year experience undertaken
by the British company in negotiating and executing its
infrastructure project in Indonesia, which sounds highly
incredible and utterly shameful.

But this apparently is a fact. An overhaul of the system is
urgent. The other complaint which causes great concern among
prospective investors is tax problems. A personal appeal on this
account was made by Arnold. He said, "Please, minimize red tape
and levies that only serve to increase the cost of doing business
(in Indonesia)." It is hoped that such an appeal will not have
the same result as raising a cry in the Sahara.

S. SUHAEDI

Jakarta