JP/15/HASSAN

HASSAN WIRAYUDA

What do you expect from the preparatory committee Meeting in Bali?

The coming preparatory meeting will produce three main agreements. They are, a plan of action, a political declaration and initiatives for partnership.

The plan of action is scheduled to be finished in Bali, while the political declaration will be further finalized in the upcoming summit in Johannesburg.

We also expect to finalize 73 initiatives for partnership that will be the concrete measures of the meeting's results.

As the host, we will lead discussions and definitely influence the three products.

The political declaration will be an important issue as learning from the past experience of the Rio Summit, we need political commitment to ensure the implementation of the plan of action.

However, we fully understand that even in the sustainable development conference many political agendas of third world countries, such as foreign occupation, will enter the discussion and it will be discussed.

The process to decide the four pages of political declarations will be much more difficult than the other agreements.

Could you explain more on the political declaration

This will not be a discussion on real politics, but to garner political commitments from all heads of state and heads of government to implement the plan of action.

Although we are talking about sustainable development there are always reasons to bring political issues like the Palestinian cause, India and Kashmir, etc.

Those countries will say that it will be impossible for us to achieve sustainable development because of war or foreign occupation.

They will ask, 'how can we avoid poverty when we are still under those pressures?'

How can you ensure the implementation of the plan of action

The plan of action should be a balanced approach that will not make some countries allergic to sustainable development. It should be both idealistic and realistic, unlike the one we achieved in Rio.

It should also appear in the initiatives for partnerships as we will go directly to each project that can be achieved through bilateral and multilateral approaches.

The commitment will not just include traditional players like the foreign ministry or foreign economic relations, but include all major stake holders like local government, business community and civil society.

It is easy for each signatory to cheat on the agreement and it has happened for the past ten years. There is discrepancy between the awareness and commitment and in the coming meeting we have to deal with it.

It will be a very difficult process because we are up against the strong countries that control 85 percent of economic power. That is why we have to empower ourselves and be committed to the rules.

What will are some of the benefits that Indonesia can expect from this meeting

We serve as a good example of a country that has implemented unsustainable development. After enjoying an average of 7 to 8 percent growth per year in more then 30 years, our economy suddenly fell by 21 percent, and we suffered greatly.

The sudden drop in economic growth is not just because of our own failure to have good governance and democracy, but also because of inadequate infrastructure.

Debt is a very important issue and it concerns us most. In the meeting we will discuss better ways of financing sustainable development. How to get the commitment from developed countries to increase financial aid.

In many poor and indebted countries, there are reversed capital flows and mounting debts, just like what happens in our country.

There are a lot of creative proposals to handle such matters, not just by debt cuts or eradication, but also debt swaps, like debt for nature, debt for forest, debt for poor.

As a concept, we are still studying the possibility because there is an inability of many countries to deal with their debts and a swap could be one of the ways to deal with it.

The Foreign Ministry will have to ensure that our colleagues in the government understand the importance of this meeting.

Despite our internal weaknesses, we could point out that there are an inadequate number of international financial architects.

Many developed countries would say that they are tired of giving money as it's being taken by corrupt countries, but we can also say that what we need is direct foreign investment and not a huge flow of money that could further destabilize our country.

While at the same time we should conduct domestic reform and ensure good governance.