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.