Frenzied situation 'will not discourage investors'

Frenzied situation 'will not discourage investors'

JAKARTA (JP): Most Asian and European executives consider the
current frenzied situation in Indonesia as part of the transition
to the creation of a real democracy and that it will therefore
not discourage foreign investors.

The executives' judgment about the political and economic
situation was revealed during the 1998 Corporate Image Conference
held in Hong Kong recently.

Jannus Hutapea, the Indonesian representative at the
conference and one of the speakers, said most participants
believed Indonesia would emerge as a more democratic country in
the future and the improvement of the democratic system would
make Indonesia a better place for investment.

"The floor agreed that in the fight for a real democracy, any
state experiences chaos such as riots, incidents, student
protests, as well as military killings," Jannus, the director of
corporate communication for the Tirtamas Group, told The Jakarta
Post.

The prevailing attitude among the 130 business leaders from
Europe, Asia, America and Australia who attended the conference
was that they were still considering investing in Indonesia
despite the turmoil.

He said that most executives considered the agriculture
sector, particularly plantations and fisheries, as the most
attractive.

Jannus added, however, that most participants considered the
business incentives provided by the Indonesian government -- such
as tax holidays -- as less attractive than those offered by other
countries.

"Basically, Indonesian tax holidays are quite good but not as
interesting as what other, neighboring, countries offer. For
instance Singapore has offered 10 years," Jannus said people told
him.

Most multinational corporations that have operations in
Indonesia would stay in both good times and bad, Jannus said.
They were exercising a lot of alternatives in riding out the
economic crisis, such as downsizing, restructuring, rescheduling
and flat volumes, Jannus said.

"I was asked by some delegations whether Indonesia's tragedy
was what was displayed on CNN? I answered, not exactly, the
tragedy monitored by CNN and other media is just one screen not
the whole Indonesian picture," he said.

At least 10 people were killed during a bloody clash between
students and the military on Nov. 13, followed by riots and
looting the following day,

However the unrest was smaller than that which hit the capital
in May, in which hundreds of people died and led to the
resignation of president Soeharto after 32 years in power.

Antigovernment demonstrations are continuing in the country's
major cities on a daily basis. (29)