New IMF boss Koehler to visit Jakarta

New IMF boss Koehler to visit Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): International Monetary Fund managing director
Horst Koehler is scheduled to visit Jakarta on Sunday to examine
the implementation of the country's economic reform measures.

Finance minister Bambang Sudibyo confirmed on Monday the
planned visit.

"It'll will be just a regular visit ... My schedule is to have
dinner with him," he told reporters when asked about the visit.

Bambang added that Koehler wanted to check whether Indonesia
implemented its key economic measures by the May deadline.

He did not provide details.

The IMF is sponsoring the country's three-year economic reform
program. The fund promised the newly appointed administration of
President Abdurrahman Wahid in January a further US$5 billion
from a bailout arrangement.

The IMF is expected to disburse some $400 million in new loans
to the country early next month after its board of directors
approved the country's new letter of intent agreed with the
fund's visiting review team earlier this month.

The loan was supposed to have been disbursed in April, but was
delayed due to the government's slow progress in the
implementation of key reform programs.

Koehler, a German, was appointed the organization's managing
director in March.

The 57-year-old is a former top official in Germany's finance
ministry and headed the London-based European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development beginning in 1998.

Indonesia first signed a bailout agreement with the IMF in
November 1997 as the country plunged into its worst economic
crisis in three decades.

The country has lagged behind other crisis-hit nations,
including Malaysia which did not seek IMF assistance.

The fund urged the Indonesian government to accelerate its
banking and corporate reform programs to spur economic recovery.

The continuing weakening of the rupiah to the U.S. dollar is
now seen as a major threat to the progress of the two key reform
programs.

The rupiah has been under strong pressure, particularly due to
domestic political uncertainty.(rei)