Indonesia remains among Japan's most important partners

JAKARTA (JP): The Japanese government continues to regard Indonesia as one of its most important partners in Asia despite its increasing attention for China, a senior Japanese diplomat said here yesterday.

"Indonesia remains at the top of our foreign policy priorities in spite of our strengthening and expanding relationships with China," Koichiro Matsuura, a former deputy minister of foreign affairs, reaffirmed yesterday.

When asked to comment on the surge of Japanese investments in China in recent years, Matsuura added that Japan's Indonesian policy would not change, no matter who became the new prime minister to replace Morihiro Hosokawa.

More and more Japanese companies are diverting investments away from Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, to China. With Japan mired in their third consecutive year of economic recession, businessmen in this region are worried that Japan might have discovered a new favorite partner.

"One reflection of our policy is the fact that Indonesia and China are the largest recipients of official development assistance from Japan," Matsuura noted.

The Japanese government provides about 30 percent of the nearly US$5 billion in assistance that the Indonesian government receives annually from its creditors (Consultative Group on Indonesia).

Matsuura added, however, that it is different with regard to the private sector because businessmen will go anywhere that offers the best business opportunities.

He argued, nonetheless, that despite the surge in Japanese investments in China, Japanese businessmen are still and will remain heavily involved in the Southeast Asian economy.

Hosokawa

Matsuura said that Prime Minister Hosokawa's recent resignation would not affect Japan's relationships with Indonesia because the resignation had nothing to do with Japan's foreign policy but was caused by domestic problems.

Referring to Japan's foreign aid policy, Matsuura said the implementation of its official development assistance (ODA) would continue to be based on the principles which were adopted in 1992.

"We need to implement those principles, called the ODA Charter, as our account of responsibility to the taxpayers (people) who finance the ODA program," he said.

The principles are related to the adopting a policy of environmental protection, avoidance of the use of aid for military purposes, excessive production of weapons of mass destruction, the development of democracy and market economy and the protection of human rights.

The principles, he added, reflect the subjects of greatest concern to the Japanese people.

"Therefore, we should address that concern in order to maintain public support for our foreign aid program," he added.

"But we don't want to impose those principles as conditions to our aid because the recipients of our assistance are sovereign nations," Matsuura said.

According to him, there are many ways of implementing the ODA Charter without giving the impression of pressuring aid recipients to honor those principles.

The Indonesian government decided to stop accepting official assistance from the Dutch government in 1992 after they imposed an improvement in human rights as a condition to their aid. (vin)