'Investors must receive good service'

JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Try Sutrisno called on investment officials yesterday to do their best to provide good service to investors in order to encourage more investment.

"We should treat investors well and proportionally by giving them the best service: quick, easy, simple, clear, complete and polite," Try said while opening the three-day coordination meeting of investment officials from across the archipelago.

Try warned that Indonesia is facing keener competition than ever in attracting foreign investors as more and more countries pursue open-market economies by allowing foreign investment.

The competitors, he said, include Indochina and East European countries.

He said officials dealing with investment, be they in the central government or in the provincial and district administrations, should strive to enhance investment by conducting more promotional activities.

State Minister of Investment Sanyoto Sastrowardoyo acknowledged that there are some obstacles in the implementation of the government's rulings on investment.

He told journalists during a break in the meeting that he could not monitor directly the activities of investment officials on the provincial investment coordinating boards as they are responsible directly to the governors of their respective provinces, rather than to the investment minister.

An investment official from Riau complained at yesterday's meeting that investment officials at the provincial levels lack power because they do not have licensing authority.

"While they are always told to increase investment in their areas, they are not empowered to issue licenses or supervise investment implementation," he said.

Sanyoto contended, however, that the provincial investment coordinating boards are supposed to have the power to issue all local permits needed by foreign and domestic investors.

He added that barriers to investment implementation are not caused solely by the government.

"Financing problems are also responsible for delaying or postponing investment realization," he said.

Sanyoto dismissed the notion that the Investment Coordinating Board in Jakarta had not done its best to facilitate investment licensing and implementation.

Higher target

Try said investment officials are facing major challenges because the upward revision of the economic growth target from 6.2 percent to 7.1 percent a year during the next four years requires a much larger sum of investment.

In his state address before the House of Representatives last August, President Soeharto asked for the upward revision of the investment targets for the current Five-Year Development Plan (1994-1999) to Rp 815 trillion (US$357 billion) from the original target of Rp 660 trillion, in order to raise the rate of economic growth.

Sanyoto noted that the revision had also raised the private investment target for the five-year period from Rp 177.3 trillion to Rp 224.7 trillion.

"That represents an increase of 26.7 percent, which is not an easy task to accomplish," he added.

He was however, optimistic that domestic and foreign investments would reach the new target.

"From January to Oct. 15 this year alone, we have licensed $33.5 billion in new foreign investment commitments. That was much larger than the $23.7 billion approved throughout last year," he said.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister of Trade and Industry Hartarto, who also addressed the meeting, said that Indonesia should attract more investment from countries which are undergoing industrial restructuring because they are looking for sites for plant relocations.

Hartarto cited Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, which are restructuring their manufacturing industries.

"Don't miss even a single investment chance because opportunity knocks only once," Hartarto told the meeting.(rid)