Indonesia luring U.S. investors to return
By Imanuddin
WASHINGTON (JP): Minister of Trade and Industry Rahardi Ramelan has invited American businesspeople to return to Indonesia and put in more investment.
"I invite all of you to come to Indonesia, find out and understand the real conditions and invest there," Rahardi, leading an Indonesian trade delegation, told a business forum here on Tuesday.
The minister acknowledged that the Indonesian economic crisis and reports of unrest and political uncertainties had discouraged investors from doing business in Indonesia.
"Many leading U.S. industrialists went and invested, but, sad to say, today most are divesting and waiting to see what conditions are like after the upcoming general election, slated for June 7," he said.
But he believed that the causes of unrest could be addressed and confidence would then return to the country.
Speaking of various outbreaks of unrest in several parts of Indonesia that had become the source of investor fears, Rahardi said they could not be described as typically Indonesian.
"The unrest did not represent the real situation in Indonesia," he said, while noting that the recent riot in downtown Chicago did not represent the whole American community either.
The trade delegation, which includes 23 leading Indonesian manufacturers and exporters, called on U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky and other U.S. officials. They also met the ASEAN-U.S. Business Forum in Washington during the visit.
In his speech Rahardi also acknowledged that the monetary crisis jolting Indonesia since July 1997 has seriously affected the industrial, business and trading sectors as well the Indonesian people.
"Several promising sectors such as automotives and electronics have only been utilizing less than 15 percent of their industrial capacity due to the sharp fall in the domestic market and problems in raw material procurement," the minister said.
"Almost nobody bought cars last year due to declining purchasing power," he added.
He said the economic crisis has also substantially affected the people's standard of living. "There are a lot of children who are unable to go to school because of decreasing parental income," he said.
Rahardi, however, guaranteed that there would be no significant changes in economic policies in the future, especially with a new government arising from the upcoming general election.
"The economic professionals will still be there, while the economic players will be the same," he said.
The Indonesian businessmen urged their American counterparts to continue buying Indonesian products to help revive Indonesia's ailing economy.
"Only with customer support can Indonesian business and the economy sustain itself and survive the economic crisis," Manimaren, a director of the Texmaco textile and garment company, said.
He cited the need for the U.S. government to remove trade barriers such as import restrictions imposed on Indonesian textile products.
"By the time the textile quota is removed, Indonesia will be one of the largest textile exporters in the world," he said in an Indonesian business forum.
Anton J. Supit, chairman of the Indonesian Footwear Association, said Indonesian products were competitive quality- wise and cheaper than similar products of other countries.
"Last year, our company sold shoes which were five to 15 percent lower in price than equivalent products of a similar quality offered by China," he said, while noting that 35 percent to 40 percent of the popular Nike shoes sold on the world market were made in Indonesia.