Megawati told to improve economic performance

Megawati told to improve economic performance

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post,Jakarta

Legislators urged President Megawati Soekarnoputri to improve
the performance of her economic team and set up clearer
priorities in its bid to revive the economy.

Despite expressing understanding that three months is a short
period of time for Megawati to proceed with the economic recovery
effort, major factions at the People's Consultative Assembly
asked for more attention from the government in dealing with the
weakening financial situation in the country.

"We understand that 100 days of governing is not a sufficient
time, but we expected that the government at least could draw up
the priorities and problems that should be taken care off, to
boost the economic condition," Golkar Party faction spokesman
Simon Patrice Morin said.

"So far we have yet to see any concrete measures and policies
in the economic field, we have yet to see any significant steps
to get out from the prolonged crisis," Simon said, in the
Assembly's Annual Session on Friday.

The second largest faction at the Assembly also urged the
government economic team to outline comprehensive measures in
rescheduling the foreign loans and not just by temporarily
postponing the payment.

"Citing the complexity of the economic problems, our faction
suggested there should be an Assembly decree on economic recovery
to outline the major steps and authorities of each government
agency in handling economic issues," he said.

Megawati, in her progress report on Thursday, painted a gloomy
picture of the country's economic condition, but failed to offer
a breakthrough in economic programs.

The president partly blamed the global economic turmoil for
the country's slow progress in economic recovery programs.

The global economic slowdown, signaled by the gloomy outlook
in the world's major economies including the U.S. and Japan
hampered the country's economic recovery.

The devastating Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. only turned
things from bad to worse, forcing Indonesia to face an even
grimmer outlook as a sharp decline in state incomes seems
inevitable.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction
highlighted the government's frankness in acknowledging the
complexity of the crisis as a good step towards further
accomplishment.

The party threw its weight behind the government's commitment
to place economic recovery in front of other issues as a
locomotive to pull the country out of the prolonged multi-
dimensional crisis.

"We support the government plan to speed up the economic
recovery by regaining investor confidence, which is the main
prerequisite for a better investment climate," spokesman Amris
Hassan said.

"However, this has to be followed by, among others, giving
them (investors) legal certainty."

"The completions of various projects by the government,
including Chandra Asri, Tanjung Jati and Tuban deals should
create momentum for our ongoing economic restructuring process."

The faction of United Development Party (PPP) shared the same
view with the government that external factors have dealt a heavy
blow to the domestic economic outlook.

"Following the tragic attacks, international development had
proved unfortunate for us in our efforts to recover," spokesman
Surya Dharma stated.

The Regional Representatives faction showed more concern about
the increasing trend of the country's sovereign debt, which has
been weighing heavily on the state budget.

"Our debts have trapped us so deeply that a large part of our
budget has to be allocated every year for debt interest payments
only," spokesman Hariadi Sukamdani said.

"We urged the government to gradually reduce our debts to
provide the people with hopes that someday, Indonesia will
finally be out of debt."

As of April, the country's debts stood at around US$ 140
billion, some $72 billion of which was government debt.

The faction also stressed the importance of the government to
accelerate income from privatization programs and the sales of
state-owned assets under the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency
(IBRA).

The government is targeting a privatization proceeds of some
Rp 6.5 trillion and Rp 27 trillion from the sale of assets under
the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

However, the government has yet to rake in even a cent from
privatization program and still some Rp 8 trillion short of its
assets sales target.

The staunch supporters of former president Abdurrahman Wahid,
the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction, criticized the
coordination among the government economic team, saying that in
the past three-months the team has done nothing.

"The government has yet to live up the people's expectation in
the economic field, the economic team is basically paralyzed. The
financial condition of the people has grown worse in the last
couple of months," PKB spokesperson Ida Fauziah said.

"It is time for the economic team to proven themselves as a
dream team and not just as the dreaming team," she said.