Kadin hails new ruling over investment for foreigners

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) will reorganize its executive boards and streamline its working procedures in a bid to improve efficiency.

The chairman of Kadin, Aburizal Bakrie, said in a press conference on Saturday that the plans would be the main agenda of Kadin's two-day special meeting here starting today.

"I will propose a bigger role for industrial associations and individual businessmen within Kadin," Aburizal said.

Aburizal added that he would reduce the number of executive boards to give the secretary general firmer control of daily activities and also decentralize the decision-making process in Kadin's chapters in the provinces.

He said that tycoons like Soedono Salim, Sudwikatmono, Prajogo Pangestu, Eka Tjipta Widjaja and Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana had agreed to join Kadin's Supervisory Board.

"They will help us with valuable advice," he noted.

Under its present organizational structure, Kadin executive boards consist of four different councils. The chairman has to deal with routine daily activities, and industrial associations cannot attend Kadin's national congresses as full participants.

He said Kadin had never worked hard enough to nurture good cooperation between big and small businessmen within the Kadin forum.

"Now we want to join them together in strong cooperation," said Aburizal, who is also the major shareholder of the widely- diversified Bakrie and Brothers Group.

According to him, President Soeharto is scheduled to open the conference.

Aburizal, who was elected as Kadin's new chairman early this year, said a team was finalizing proposed changes in Kadin's statute and working procedures to make it a more efficient organization and to make it more conducive for improved cooperation between big and small businessmen.

Fahmi Idris, a member of the team, said that it had drafted an 85-page statute and 58-page working procedure to be proposed to the special conference. (09)