Indonesia likely to be a dominant issue at ASEM

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.