Kadin sets up promotion agency to lure investors
Kadin sets up promotion agency to lure investors
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(Kadin) established yesterday an investment, tourism and trade
promotion agency in a bid to win back the elusive foreign
investor confidence that has deserted the crisis-hit country.
Kadin chairman Aburizal Bakrie said the agency would need at
least US$15 million per annum to support its promotion
activities.
He said that about $3 million of the total would be allocated
to pay a foreign media company to organize a massive overseas
campaign starting early next year.
"We have several candidates but we have not decided which
media company to use," he told reporters following a ceremony to
launch the promotion agency, which is a unit of Kadin.
The promotion agency replaces the government-sponsored
overseas Investment and Trade Promotion Center offices which were
closed in April due to financing difficulties.
Aburizal explained that financing for the promotion efforts
would come from local corporations and business associations. The
Lippo Group, Astra International, and Indosat have all agreed to
become sponsors.
Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry
Ginandjar Kartasasmita welcomed Kadin's initiative to organize
the promotion efforts because the current economic crisis had
slashed the ability of the state budget to finance such
activities, which he described as essential considering the low
confidence in the country.
"The key to the economic recovery is reviving domestic and
foreign investor confidence in the country," he said at
yesterday's ceremony.
He promised that the government would implement policies that
would help Kadin's promotion efforts.
Aburizal said that the overseas promotion efforts would be
spearheaded by the seven special envoys appointed by President
B.J. Habibie last month.
The envoys are well-known local business leaders who received
diplomatic passports to travel around the globe to try to entice
overseas business leaders to reinvest in the country.
Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the special envoy for Europe, said at
the ceremony that rebuilding foreign investor confidence would be
a tough job.
"They (foreign investors) are not questioning the legality of
the (current) government, but are demanding political stability,"
he said.
Hashim is the younger brother of Lt. Gen Prabowo Subianto who
was recently dismissed from the military amid allegations that he
was involved in the kidnapings of political activists, which
contributed to the May unrest and the fall of former president
Soeharto.
The May riots and ongoing political instability have further
eroded foreign investors' confidence in the country. (rei)