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)