President predicts improvement in 2001
JAKARTA (JP): After surviving a tough spell in 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Sunday he believed the new year would bring Indonesia more blessings, particularly on the economic front.
"I look ahead to the future with guarded optimism that we will soon overcome our infrastructure problems. The economy has begun to revive and we will refine its rhythm in 2001," the President said in a year-end speech broadcast nationwide.
"In my opinion, we will make big progress in the year 2001."
Gus Dur, as the President is better known, said his government would improve the infrastructure, security, the bureaucracy and tax regulations, as well as boosting exports, which will remain the backbone of the economy as they have since the financial crisis struck in 1997.
The President said the economic crisis had shifted the government's priority from seeking foreign investment to enhancing export volume and value.
The country's total exports reached US$50 billion in 2000, surpassing the projected $38 billion.
Security fears have been blamed for sluggish foreign investment in the country, which saw continued violence in Aceh and the Malukus, as well as sporadic clashes in other territories. Bomb attacks in nine cities across the archipelago on Christmas Eve dealt the nation its latest blow.
But the President insisted more foreign investors would pour into the country and there were rays of hope seen. These include Kuwait's interest in investing in off-shore oil exploration on Seram island in Maluku, and Malaysia's investment in palm oil plantations.
The upward revision of economic growth for 2000 from between 3 percent and 4 percent to up to 5 percent has encouraged the government of brighter prospects, the President said.
To support the efforts to achieve the country's goals, Abdurrahman pledged to promote information technology in remote areas.
"The technology will be applied in a rational way, by not pushing for an exaggerated use of computers because this will touch only a small percentage of the people in the country," he said.
The government, he said, will instead rely on telephones and televisions to bring information technology to as many people as possible across the archipelago, which is home to 210 million people, making it the world's fourth most populous country.
Abdurrahman said that without ignoring the importance of the English language, information technology would be transmitted in Bahasa Indonesia to maintain national identity in the wake of globalization and the implementation of regional autonomy.
"Due to the greater autonomy and the transfer of authority from the central government to local governments, there will be a tendency to restrict key administrative positions to natives. This regionalism trend should be compensated for by strengthening national identity through the use of Bahasa Indonesia," the President said.
On disintegration threats, Abdurrahman expressed optimism that security problems in Aceh, Irian Jaya, also known as Papua, and the Malukus would be resolved.
The President said the process of settling these problems "is reaching its final stage" through negotiations between Indonesians, without foreign mediation.
"Our Papuan friends, including those who are undergoing police investigation, will complete the negotiations with us in the near future," he said.
He also asserted the majority of the separatist rebels in Aceh had shown interest in continuing peace talks.
"They are all our brothers, of one nation, not other people. I believe they will go to the negotiating table and reach an agreement with us." (byg/amd)