No specific plan yet for RI debt: Japan
No specific plan yet for RI debt: Japan
TOKYO (Reuters): Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday it is considering various options to solve the foreign debt problems of Indonesia's private sector but has not yet chosen one as its official proposal.
"We have not come up with a specific measure. We are still discussing various options," a senior MOF official said.
But he said that one idea being discussed was that which was reported in the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Friday, which said Japan had proposed measures to cut about $65 billion in foreign debt of Indonesia's private sector by more than 30 percent.
"There are many people involved in this discussion...we are still discussing in a very broad way. The idea (reported in the daily) was taken up in our discussions, but not in such specific terms," he said.
The daily said that under the plan, foreign banks would forgo some of their loans and some corporate debt would be converted into stock in debtor companies. The remaining external debt would be rescheduled and guaranteed by the Indonesian government.
The proposal also called for financial assistance already pledged by Japan and other countries to be extended to the Indonesian government in order to boost its ability to guarantee loans, it said.
The idea was proposed to the Indonesian government by a mission sent to Jakarta by the Japanese government in mid- February, the daily said.
"We have not reached a specific conclusion. The idea was only one alternative among a wide range of options in our discussions," the official said, but declined to elaborate on what other options they have discussed.
In mid-February, the ministry sent a mission to Indonesia to study the country's financial crisis.
The mission, headed by Tadao Chino, a former vice finance minister for international affairs, said in a report after the visit that assistance should include funding from the Export- Import Bank of Japan, trade insurance and aid for daily necessities such as food and medicine.