Jimbaran Group welcomes new partnership body

JAKARTA (JP): Sudwikatmono, a Jimbaran Group founder, welcomed yesterday the establishment of the Coordinating Board for the Implementation of National Business Partnership Program.

"The formation of the new group will reduce our responsibility to help the government eradicate poverty," he said in Surabaya.

A task force, representing 79 big local businesses, agreed Thursday to set up an organization to develop partnerships with small businesses and cooperatives in a similar arrangement to the Jimbaran Group.

The Jimbaran Group comprises 48 tycoons who agreed at a meeting in Jimbaran, Bali, in early 1995 to help the government eradicate poverty through partnerships with small business.

The group began helping cooperatives and small businesses last year, and has spent about Rp 2.1 trillion (US$905.1 million) on partnership programs with about 900,000 small businesses.

Sudwikatmono said the country's 30 million small businesses would have to wait a long time to join the Jimbaran Group's program.

"The establishment of the new partnership body indicates its members' willingness to follow the Jimbaran Group in expediting the partnership scheme," he was reported by Antara as saying.

Asked whether the new group would merge with the Jimbaran Group, he said, "It's up to the government. But if it decided to merge the two groups, the Jimbaran Group was ready," he said.

He said the Jimbaran Group was doing well with 80 percent of its program realized. (bnt)