Indonesia needs to open up its protected sectors: Moerdiono

Indonesia needs to open up its protected sectors: Moerdiono

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia needs to further open up its protected
sectors, simplify bureaucracy and empower businesses and social
organizations to ensure high economic growth and compete in the
coming free market era, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said.

"We have a lot of homework to do to improve our
competitiveness in the global market," Moerdiono told a two-day
seminar organized by the Pancasila University here yesterday.

He noted that the level of protection in a number of sectors,
especially industry, needs to be reduced gradually to expose them
to global competition so that they can become more efficient.

Many bureaucratic procedures are still too complicated for
businesses to follow, and need to be simplified to encourage more
business activities, he added.

"We also need to empower our social organizations, most of
which still face problems related to leadership and allocation of
resources," Moerdiono said.

He said that the most challenging task facing Indonesia in the
coming century is empowering local businesses to compete in a
freer global market.

"All those things are necessary because we are facing greater
competition from countries which have just completed their
national integration processes: Vietnam, Cambodia, India and
Pakistan," Moerdiono said.

Moreover, he added, in only eight years, Indonesian
enterprises will be forced to compete head-on with companies from
10 countries in Southeast Asia. And by 2020, they are to compete
with companies from all countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

"For a dynamic society, 25 years is not a long time. And
therefore we must work hard to improve our competitiveness,"
Moerdiono said. "We must from now on focus on the micro rather
than the macro."

Even though the current wave of economic globalization is
huge, Moerdiono predicted that the government will keep providing
public services, especially security.

Aspirations

Economist Sjahrir supported Moerdiono's view, saying that to
improve the country's competitiveness, the government needs to
accommodate the public's political aspirations and improve the
transparency of its economic management.

He warned that Indonesia is already in danger of
disintegration, citing recent riots in Jakarta and Situbondo,
East Java, as the most obvious warnings signs.

Therefore, unless the government meets the public's political
demands, the country will experience more political disturbances,
which may lower competitiveness, because it will not be a safe
place to do business anymore.

Former cabinet minister Subroto shared this view, saying that
the public's current discontent with the establishment is a
result of the success of economic development.

He said economic development has helped create income gaps --
and also a certain decadence. The violence shows that some
people, especially those in the lower-level income brackets, are
dissatisfied with wealth distribution.

"On the other hand, the well-to-do are also dissatisfied with
the current condition because they find no channels to express
their political aspirations," said Subroto, who is also the
rector of the university.

Meanwhile, former vice president Soedharmono noted that
Indonesia is compelled to follow international trends, including
fairness, human rights, democratization, openness, environmental
protection, and so forth.

"Every nation must realize this if they want to participate in
the development of new world order and benefit from the
opportunities offered by the international community,"
Soedharmono said. (rid)