Luhut plans to focus on foreign investment

Luhut plans to focus on foreign investment

SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): Indonesia's newly appointed trade and
industry minister, Luhut Panjaitan, said he plans to focus on
attracting foreign investors by offering them incentives and
easier access.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday fired Trade
and Industry Minister Yusuf Kalla and appointed Luhut, currently
Indonesia's ambassador to Singapore, to replace him.

"One thing I assure and promise is to make it easier and give
more incentives to foreign investors to do business in Indonesia
-- that's my top objective," Luhut said in a telephone interview.
"With my experience as the ambassador here for eight months, I
understand very well the expectations and concerns of foreign
investors."

The appointment comes after Indonesia's economic ministers
came under increasing criticism for carrying out economic reforms
too slowly. Indonesia is the only crisis-hit Asian country where
foreign direct investment has fallen in the past two years.

Luhut promised "easy government access" for foreign investors.

"If they have any problem in dealing with the government in
terms of regulations, they can contact me any time and I'll try
to sort out the problem immediately," he said.