Reducing capital flight

Reducing capital flight

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-
Jakti has requested that the local business community make
efforts in 2002 to return their capital deposited abroad.

It's not a new appeal, but who knows, it might be effective
this time.

Indeed, the capital flight has also occurred in crisis-hit
countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea and
Malaysia. However, the biggest capital flight has occured from
Indonesia. Anwar Nasution, senior deputy governor of Bank
Indonesia, mentioned that as much as US$40 billion has been moved
out of the country and the amount is growing unabated.

And this doesn't include all those businesspeople who do not
bring home their US dollar income, which is deposited in foreign
banks abroad, for example, in Singapore.

The flight of capital has paralyzed Indonesia's economy. There
is no money left to manage the country's economy and to
revitalize domestic industries. The circulation of money in
society has become smaller, causing widespread poverty.

The state with its deficit budget has to finance its
operational costs. The economy will not recover as long as there
is no more incoming capital, both the return of capital flight
and new foreign investment.

Now, we are only able to strike the conscience of capital
owners. They have to realize that what they have done has
tormented millions of people. The huge amounts of capital that
have been obtained from state banks over the years and then
transferred abroad, contributed not only to the collapse of many
of these banks, but also imposed enormous burdens on workers and
taxpayers alike who have had to pick up the pieces.

Let us show ourselves as responsible citizens and work toward
retaining as much capital as is possible within Indonesia.

-- Republika, Jakarta