Local businesses urged to be more active

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Local businesses here need to get more involved in the making of national trade rules and regulations in order to help create a pro-business environment and improve the business climate, says the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

ICC's secretary general Maria Livanos Cattaui told a press conference on Monday that local businesses here had not played a significant role in devising policy and regulations.

"I'm here to invite them to participate more," she said.

Maria further explained that it was not in ICC's capacity to interfere at the national level by making suggestions directly to the government, but rather to work with local players so that they, in turn, could push for better regulations.

"We help them (local businesses) to clarify those areas that will be most helpful to them to work with the government," said Maria.

The relatively unfavorable business climate here is a major obstacle in luring investment, both domestic and foreign. But, by getting more involved in the making of trade regulations, the chances are better that those regulations will be more in line with what the business community needs.

Their participation could be in the form of recommendations or inputs from the business community to the government and House of Representatives, before and during deliberations.

ICC was established in 1919 and draws members from 120 nations, and focuses its consultancy on setting rules and standards for international transactions, drafting model contracts and establishing other codes and disciplines.

Members of the ICC get continuous updates on prevailing international business customs and can ask for assistance from the organization's arbitration court in the case of disputes.

In Indonesia, the ICC's national committee had been a part of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) since the 1950s up until 2002. Kadin's chairman was automatically the president of the national committee and Indonesia's representative to the worldwide organization.

However, after reviewing its development in light of Kadin's other programs, the ICC national committee separated from Kadin in September 2003 and now stands independently. "Kadin's job is to improve the performance of all companies in the country, while ICC deals only with businesses relating to foreign business," ICC Indonesia's president Noke Kiroyan said recently.

Currently there are 25 companies already enlisted as members of ICC Indonesia. "We hope to get 50 new members in 2005," said Noke.

Elsewhere, the secretary general also called for Indonesia to wage war on copyright piracy, which costs industries worldwide some US$600 billion per year, and to enforce already existing copyright laws.

Meanwhile, to assist the reconstruction of the tsunami- stricken province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Maria said the ICC had made an appeal to all the chambers around the globe through its world chambers' federation, a specialized division of ICC.

"The funds that we'll collect will not go to immediate humanitarian help," said Maria, without specifying the amount already committed to this program. "We're looking down the line at the necessity to reconstruct small local business."