Indonesia 'must protect' its local service sector

JAKARTA (JP): Although Indonesia has to join the global efforts to liberalize the service sector, the country should do its utmost to ensure the growth of its local service industry, a senior official of Bank Indonesia said on Friday.

"The liberalization of the service sector is unavoidable, but what, how and when the liberalization is to be implemented must be determined by the Indonesian government and people," the central bank's Deputy Governor Achjar Iljas said during a workshop on The General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS).

The workshop was held from Wednesday through Friday by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in cooperation with the central bank, the Indonesian mission to the WTO and the ministry of industry and trade, according to a statement from the bank.

"When liberalizing, Indonesia should not only take care of its international rights and obligations, but also its domestic and economic needs," Achjar added.

Meanwhile, Adolf Warouw, head of the Coordinating Committee for National Service, insisted during the workshop that the liberalization of the service sector not endanger the local service industry.

The WTO members launched negotiations on service and agriculture last year, following the failure of the WTO meeting in Seattle in December 1999 which was supposed to launch wide- ranging trade liberalization talks.

The WTO members will meet again in Doha, Qatar, late this year.

Developing countries, which are mostly still protecting their service sector from foreign investors, fear the future WTO agreement on the liberalization of the service sector will lead to the domination of foreign firms in their service industries.

The workshop was aimed at providing information on the current negotiations on the GATS and to formulate Indonesia's "Schedule of Commitment" which had to be submitted to the WTO in the near future, the statement said.

Participants of the workshop included legislators, officials from the central bank, several governmental institutions and academies, it added. (jsk)