Reform reflects vow of liberalization

Reform reflects vow of liberalization

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's deregulation package announced in
May reflects its commitment to the liberalization of trade and
investment in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum,
a Japanese executive said on Thursday.

"The move gives a sense that there is a strong drive in the
direction of liberalization," Nobuo Tateisi, vice president of
Omron Corporation of Japan, said at a seminar organized jointly
by the Business Review Indonesia Forum and the Japan Institute
for Social and Economic Affairs.

Tateisi is also one of the Japanese representatives in the
Pacific Business Forum (PBF), which functions as an advisory body
to APEC leaders.

On May 23, immediately prior to the first meeting of the PBF,
the Indonesian government announced a deregulation package that
lowered the tariffs on 6,030 items and removed restrictions on
the importation of 81 items.

"This move was the subject of much discussion at the PBF
meeting, and received strong praise for its impact on the steady
implementation of the terms of the Bogor declaration," Tateisi
said.

The Bogor declaration was the outcome of the second summit of
the APEC leaders who gathered in Bogor, West Java, last November.
The declaration laid down the target dates to liberalize trade
and investment in the region by 2020 for the industrialized
member economies and 2010 for the developing members.

Tateisi also praised Indonesia's move last year to ease
foreign investment restrictions, when the ceiling on the amount
of foreign investment was removed and the obligation to divest
majority ownership in joint-venture companies was abolished.

"I very much hope that Indonesia continue with its efforts in
this direction," Tateisi said at his keynote speech.

Comment

Commenting on the next APEC summit in Osaka, Japan, Tateisi
said that the summit would draw up action guidelines to include
specific details of the facilitation measures aimed at creating
an environment conducive to promoting liberalization in each
field.

In advance of next November's APEC summit, Masaya Miyoshi,
president and director general of the Japan Federation of
Economic Organizations (Keidanren), said that the federation had
released a proposal on what should be done by Japan as the
forum's incumbent leader.

"In light of the extreme diversity among APEC's members,
Keidanren believes that the best approach is to encourage each
member to voluntarily draft its own liberalization program,"
Miyoshi said.

He added that Keidanren called on Japan to serve as a model
for liberalization. "Toward the Osaka meeting, Japan should do
all it can to expand imports, and this means it should push
resolutely forward with deregulation and cut its tariff rates
further."

He explained that Keidanren has made a great number of
recommendations on areas where regulations should be relaxed or
abolished, and it was asking the Japanese government to take
action on them.

"Another obvious need is for Japan to expand its official
development assistance and in other ways extend greater
cooperation with developing countries," Miyoshi said.

He added that Keidanren also urged APEC to faithfully observe
the rules of the World Trade Organization, which took over from
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on Jan. 1, this year.
(rid)