Indonesia, a genuine friend and partner of Japan
Indonesia, a genuine friend and partner of Japan
On the occasion of the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor of
Japan, The Jakarta Post interviewed His Excellency Mr. Takao
Kawakami, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Indonesia. Here
we share his thoughts concerning Japan-Indonesia relations.
Question: First of all, may I have your views on Indonesia in
1998?
Answer: This year saw the beginning of Indonesia's new era for
reforms both in political and economic fields, and overall, in my
view, things seem to be going definitely in the right direction.
I certainly wish the Indonesian people well in their continued
strenuous efforts for reforms in the run-up period to the general
election to be held in May or June next year and thereafter. In
terms of reforms, Japan, too, is carrying out reforms in many
fields, starting from the financial and banking systems.
Reforms tend naturally to be accompanied with pain. Reason and
patience will be, therefore, very much in order. In fact, the
Japanese economy is also facing a hard time with an increasing
rate of unemployment as well as an increasing number of
bankruptcies of banks and enterprises. Despite the difficult
domestic conditions, however, Japan has been taking the lead in
supporting the reform efforts made by Indonesia through its
economic and technical cooperation schemes.
Would you please explain precisely about the economic
assistance which has been done so far by Japan?
Over the past three decades, Indonesia has always been Japan's
biggest development cooperation partner. It has constantly been
the biggest recipient of Japan's official development assistance.
Over 3 trillion yen of soft loans have been extended
cumulatively during that period mainly to finance a great number
of economic infrastructure projects together with about 200
billion of grant in aid, which has been disbursed in particular
to address the social sector needs of the country.
In the field of technical cooperation, 7,000 Japanese
specialists have been dispatched to Indonesia and 14,000
Indonesian trainees have been received and trained in Japan. All
these figures exceed those of the economic assistance extended by
Japan to any other developing country in the world in terms of
its scale. We consider with certain pride that Japanese economic
cooperation with Indonesia has played an important role for
Indonesia's development in various key sectors, like agriculture,
transportation, power generation and transmission, health,
education, etc.
Our extensive cooperation in Indonesia's attaining self-
sufficiency in rice in the early 1980s, and the establishment of
three emergency hospitals in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali are just
a few concrete cases in point.
In this current economic crisis, the Government of Japan has
already pledged, and is implementing 150 billion of sector-
program loans, one million tons of rice aid and emergency grant
assistance of medical materials and equipment as well as milk
powder. I have to mention equally that the present Japanese
economic assistance in this time of crisis in Indonesia has been
focused in particular on helping the socially vulnerable people.
It is my strong hope that the assistance will be of some help in
stabilizing the poorer and needy people's lives in Indonesia.
Besides the government-to-government assistance, the Japanese
government has also been extending grant aid for grassroots
projects directly tailored to the needs of the Indonesian people
through various Indonesian NGOs. This small-scale aid is used,
among others, for electrification of villages, supply of water in
rural areas, various educational needs, etc.
Apart from the government cooperation, needless to say there
are a large number of Japanese investors operating in Indonesia.
Presently, more than 1,100 Japanese joint-venture companies are
operating here, with a total cumulative investment of US$42.6
billion for the past more than three decades.
They are serving for mutually beneficial causes, and are
certainly contributing to job creation as well as transfer of
technology in Indonesia.
Could you explain about the Miyazawa Plan, which was announced
formerly to help Asian countries that are confronting the economy
crisis?
In order to overcome the economic difficulties in Asia, while
avoiding the risk of falling into a deflationary spiral, we
believe it is imperative for Asian countries to take appropriate
actions to put their economy on the path of recovery and
sustainable growth.
It is in this context that Japan decided to provide adequate
financial support, namely the "New Miyazawa Initiative", to Asian
countries to assist the region overcome the economic difficulties
and to contribute to stability of the international financial
markets.
The total value of the New Miyazawa Initiative amounts to $30
billion, of which $15 billion will be made available for the
medium- to long-term financial needs for economic recovery in
Asian countries, and another $15 billion will be set aside for
their possible short-term capital needs during the process of
implementing the economic reform.
As the medium- to long-term financial facilities, Japan will
provide funds in the form of loans from the Export-Import Bank of
Japan, and ODA loans. Also, guarantees by the Export-Import Bank
of Japan will be provided in respective governments' raising
funds through international financial markets. Furthermore, we
intend to support in other areas, such as interest subsidies,
technical assistance, etc.
These schemes will target various areas, such as:
1) supporting the corporate debt restructuring in the private
sector and efforts to make financial systems sound and stable,
2) strengthening the social safety net,
3) stimulating the economy by implementing public undertaking,
and
4) addressing the credit crunch.
Japan is now considering more details of this initiative,
based on respective Asian governments' needs and requests.
Hopefully, this Japanese initiative will help Asian countries
overcome the current economic difficulties and bring the region
back on to a steady growth path again.
What do you think is the key, or secret, of Japan's successful
economic growth?
Some people may point out that one of the reasons for the
success of the East Asian countries is their very high rate of
domestic savings. I think policy priority on, and emphasis in,
education and human resources development, solid and honest
bureaucracy and relatively fair distribution of income, etc., are
to be cited equally as constituting very important elements for
economic growth.
Sociopolitical stability is also very much needed for economic
growth. I believe that economic development which is achieved by
social stability in Japan has, in turn, brought further stability
to the society, offering a solid guarantee to our national
security.
Having said that, I must recognize, at the same time, as I
said above, that Japan does have problems now, structural and
otherwise, and that the Government of Japan is trying vigorously
to deal effectively with these problems.
Do you have any advice to give Indonesia as a friendly country
to Japan?
Indonesia is now going through a period of one of the greatest
political changes in its history. It is, equally, in the throes
of the severe effects caused by the present Asian economic
crisis. Here, naturally, I must say I have certain limits as
Ambassador in making comments. On this premise, however,
political stability seems to me indispensable from economic
recovery. Indonesia is faced with many challenges. Transition
should, therefore, be orderly. In this regard, I believe the
spirit of musyawarah (consensus) and gotong-royong (communal
allocation of tasks) you all share as a part of your culture may
be very beneficial in producing national consensus on a number of
vital issues.
Anyway, I am convinced that the traditional wisdom,
perseverance and courage for which the Indonesian people are
known will certainly help soon overcome Indonesia's current
problems, and that a renewed Indonesia will emerge even more
vigorous in the 21st century on its path to further rapid
economic development. And Japan, as a genuine friend and partner
of Indonesia, is always there to help.
It is often said that Japan-Indonesia relations mainly depend
on economic aspects only. What is your opinion about that?
I do not share that view. Our cooperation is by now much wider
in scope. We have a wide range of increasingly intense human
exchanges and interaction between the two countries in the
noneconomic fields as well. A great number of youth exchange
programs, both governmental and nongovernmental is, for example,
a case in point.
Cultural exchanges through the Japan Foundation or otherwise
are also being intensified. In 1995, we held a major cultural
event called the "Japan-Indonesia Friendship Festival", which was
held successfully by the Indonesian side in a number of cities in
Japan.
Lots of tourists from Japan are visiting Bali and other
tourist attractions in Indonesia. This certainly helps also to
bring the two countries closer together. I know personally that
Indonesia is very rich in its cultural heritage. It is my
personal desire to visit, if possible, all of Indonesia's
provinces during my tenure here.
Could you give an explanation about the system of scholarships
from Japan and Japanese studies in Indonesia?
The Japanese government provides a number of scholarships for
Indonesian students to study in Japan. About 1,000 Indonesian
students are now studying in Japan as undergraduate students or
postgraduate students (master's or doctorate courses), etc. The
total number of scholarship grantees has been increasing year
after year.
Japanese studies in Indonesia have a long history of more than
30 years, having started with the opening of the Japanese program
at the School of Letters, University of Indonesia. I am very
happy to note that recently, interest in the Japanese language
and culture is expanding, especially among the younger generation
in Indonesia. I am impressed by the fact that Japanese language
courses and centers for Japanese studies are increasing in
number. In Japan, people are surely paying much more attention to
Asia, including, in particular, Indonesia's culture and
civilization.