'Investors must receive good service'

'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)