Indonesia will hold forex club forum

Indonesia will hold forex club forum

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will host a congress of the South East
Asia Forum of foreign exchange clubs from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 in
Denpasar, Bali.

Chairwoman of the organizing committee, Chatarina Widjaja, who
is also a Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI) director said
yesterday that about 150 participants were expected to take part
in the upcoming congress.

South East Asia Forum covers foreign exchange clubs from
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

She said foreign exchange clubs from Myanmar, Vietnam and
India would be invited to join the congress as observers.

She said the congress, called 'South East Asia towards the
year 2000', would feature expert speakers, including Andrew
Ferris, Chief Economist of Bank of America (BOA), Stuart Gulliver
of HSBC Markets in Hongkong and Mark Mobious, fund manager of
Templetion International.

Chatarina said Ferris would talk about the impact of the macro
economic condition in Southeast Asian countries, Gulliver would
discuss Hongkong as a financial center after the year 1997 and
Mobious would share his investment experience in Southeast Asian
countries.

Indonesia will also host the 41st World Congress of foreign
exchange clubs in Jakarta in 1999.

World Congress chairman, Loeki S Putra said that about 1,600
participants from 62 countries were expected to join the
congress.

Loeki, who is also a director of Bank Tiara Indonesia, said
the coming conference was expected to make Jakarta recognized as
one of the global financial centers.

Chairman of the Indonesian Foreign Exchange Club (Forexindo),
Jeffrey Turangan, said foreign exchange transactions in Jakarta
had increased steadily since 1990.

He said the total daily transaction value of foreign exchange,
which was about US$1 billion in early 1990, was now an average
$15 billion.

"That shows how strong the country is," he said.

He said that although the value was still lower than
Singapore's daily average of $100 billion, foreign investors had
recognized Indonesia, and Malaysia and the Philippines as
attractive investment places.

He said Indonesia had maintained a sound macro economic
condition with its lower inflation rate. In fiscal 1996/1997
(ended in March), Indonesia's inflation rate was 5.17 percent.
(09)