Govt, businesses must improve communication
Govt, businesses must improve communication
JAKARTA (JP): An analyst here has blamed the absence of effective dialog between the government and private businesses as one of the factors behind a weak Indonesian industrial sector.
"It seems to me that until now they (the government and the private sector) have acted individually. They don't act as a team with a similar points of view," Pande Raja Silalahi, an economist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.
He cited the government's choice of ten export products which it considers highly competitive on the world market, a choice disputed by some in the private sector.
According to Pande, if the government wants to see exports increase, it should open communication channels to devise strategies for beating the competition.
He said that both sides have to formulate some form of blueprint to sharpen the competitive edge of Indonesian private enterprise on the world market.
In Japan, he said, the government and businesses hold regular "Japan Incorporated" talks, which have helped the country become the world's leading exporter.
The Indonesian government, he noted, needs to know the views of business and vice versa.
"That way they can figure out the condition that will enable them to design a global strategy," he said.
He cited a dialog between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) as a necessary business association.
Recently, the government merged the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Industry into the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Hearings
Pande said that the talks could take a form similar to the hearings between House commissions and government ministries.
He further said that the absence of effective dialog has also made Indonesia less attractive -- compared to other countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore -- to foreign investors wanting to relocate their industrial activities.
In those countries, he said, government-business dialogs have greatly helped to strengthen their industries. "Their industries are better than ours."
According to Pande, when countries such as Japan, South Korea and the United States wanted to relocate their industries years ago, Indonesia was slow in responding.
He said Indonesia should have taken concerted efforts to improve its infrastructure and create a more attractive industrial climate. (13)