Radius meets Japanese bankers

Radius meets Japanese bankers

TOKYO (Reuters): A key advisor to the Indonesian government,
Radius Prawiro, yesterday met officials of major Japanese banks
to ask for support for an economic reform program announced by
Jakarta last week, bankers said.

One spokesman for a Japanese bank said Radius, a former
Indonesian finance minister, did not make any concrete proposals
to Japanese banks but instead asked them for cooperation, as
Japan is a member of a steering committee to work out the
nation's private debt problems with borrowers.

Radius made it clear that a debt moratorium might be needed
but added that Indonesia did not intend to take such a step, the
bank spokesman said.

Earlier in the day, Radius met Shozaburo Nakamura, state
secretary for Japan's Ministry of Finance, and Haruhiko Kuroda,
director general of the International Finance Bureau, for a
courtesy call, a spokesman at Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF)
said.

Another MOF official said the ministry did not receive any
request for further financial aid to Indonesia, adding that the
country's current situation was not such that it needed further
help from foreign nations to resolve its currency crisis.

He added that this was partly because the country's economic
fundamentals were better than those of other Asian nations such
as Thailand.

Bankers said debt negotiations between lenders and borrowers
would be difficult because of the wide variety of borrowers and
maturities that comprise Indonesia's foreign debt.

As of the end of June 1997, Japanese banks accounted for 39
percent, or US$23 billion, of Indonesia's $58.7 billion in
foreign bank debt, according to the Bank for International
Settlements.