Indonesia likely to be a dominant issue at ASEM
By K. Basrie
LONDON (JP): Indonesia's economic crisis will be a major topic at the 2nd Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) which begins here tomorrow, a British foreign office spokesman has said.
Indonesia "will be a dominant issue" in the April 2 to April 4 ASEM 2 talks, M.H.P. Hill, head of the Southeast Asia Department, told The Jakarta Post in his office.
Hill said, however, that so far there had been no sign of whether the leaders would come up with a financial bailout for Indonesia.
"There might be informal bilateral meetings with the Indonesian representative during the ASEM meeting," he said.
Vice President B.J. Habibie is representing Indonesia at the summit.
Hill said Britain believed that Indonesia would be able to overcome the crisis if it carried out the reforms agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Indonesia is currently negotiating with the IMF for the disbursement of the next US$3 billion tranche of the $43 billion loan the world lending agency raised for Indonesia last November.
Disbursement of the second $3 billion was stalled by Indonesia's reluctance to implement some of the reforms agreed to with the IMF in January.
The two-day ASEM 2 talks will take place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the Westminster area. Leaders and senior officials from European and Asian countries are scheduled to attend the meeting.
Indonesian Ambassador to Britain Rahardjo Jamtomo told visiting Indonesian reporters last week that Habibie had been slated to hold bilateral meetings with a number of leaders.
Rahardjo said Indonesia hoped to use the occasion to gain greater understanding from European countries about the way it had been dealing with the economic crisis.
He cited in particular the impacts that the tough IMF reform package would have on the people.
Hill said British investors would continue to be involved with Indonesia in spite of the crisis, noting that Britain ranked second only after Japan as the largest source of foreign investment in Indonesia's non-oil sector.
"Our major companies in Indonesia still have strong confidence about the country's future," Hill said, noting that only a few small-scale British firms had left Indonesia.
Other Asian leaders who will make their debut at the meeting are newly appointed Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who officially assumed power in February. Both Zu and Kim left their countries yesterday, according to news reports.
On the sidelines of ASEM, Zhu will attend a China-European Union summit, the first in a planned regular series intended to boost relations between China and European countries long bedeviled by arguments over human rights, Reuters reported yesterday.
The mood surrounding Zhu's trip has been transformed by an EU decision to abandon long-running efforts to censor Beijing at the latest UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.
Kim, accompanied by his wife Lee Hee-ho and foreign minister Park Chung-soo, has said his main task at the ASEM will be to seek foreign support to help South Korea out of its crippling financial crisis.
"I will express our will to take advantage of the current situation to make a leap forward and start anew through liberalization and reform," Kim said in a brief departure statement.
ASEM will bring together leaders of 15 EU countries and 10 Asian nations.