Kadin boosts cooperation at local level

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid rebukes by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over certain businessmen trying to obstruct the anticorruption drive, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has expanded its already-powerful influence to local governments.

Kadin amended its membership system on the last day of a two- day national meeting on Wednesday to allow more businessmen to join and made governors sign MOUs with provincial Kadin representatives on the adoption of stronger public-private partnership.

Kadin chairman Mohamad S. Hidayat said the chamber had now become an umbrella for 33 provincial branches of Kadin, some 300 regency-based offices, some 160 associations and 39 special international cooperation committees.

"Practically, almost all businessmen in the country are represented by Kadin," he told a press conference after the meeting.

Following the inclusion of some of the "Kadin boys" in Susilo's administration -- namely Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie, Kadin has begun to gain influence in shaping the economic policies of the government.

Kadin was able to influence the central government to adopt its proposal on public-private partnerships, known by the acronym PPP, to boost economic development. With Wednesday's signing, Kadin expects to broaden the PPP to the local level.

Kadin's move came a day after Susilo said some businessmen and bureaucrats have become a stumbling block for the government's efforts to stamp out corruption.

Amid Susilo's calls that Kadin had to play a bigger role in the fight against corruption, Hidayat said that during the event, the lobby group also promoted the Good Corporate Governance (GCG) movement among its members.

"Through GCG, we aim to implement the principals of transparency, accountability, responsibility, independence and fairness," Hidayat said.

He further said that applying such principals was a necessity in the business world, "as learning from past experience, our economy went down due to weak implementation of good corporate governance in the business world."

Kadin also launched a "Clean Transparent Professional" (BTP) national movement for the 2005-2015 period to discourage bribery.

It said that it would take 10 years for the whole nation to inculcate an anti-bribery attitude, which would eventually provide a more conducive climate for investment and national welfare.