RI needs strong drive to lure foreign investors

RI needs strong drive to lure foreign investors

By Hendarsyah Tarmizi

TOKYO (JP): Indonesia needs a stronger promotion drive to
attract Japanese fund managers to invest in its growing capital
market.

Japanese investors said on Monday that they have little
knowledge about activities of the Indonesian exchange and
suggested that the Indonesian government introduce a more
effective system in disseminating information related to the
capital market operation to foreign investors.

Hisao Otera, an executive of a Japanese insurance company,
said that most investment fund managers in his country still lack
knowledge on the development of the Indonesian capital market.

"Honestly I know little about the Indonesian capital market,"
he told newsmen during the break of a one-day seminar on the
Indonesian capital market in Tokyo's Imperial Hotel on Monday.

Otera, the head of the international investment of the Tokio
Marine and Fire Insurance Co. Ltd., said the Indonesian
government certainly has to be more active in promoting its
capital market overseas such as to Japanese investors, who mostly
still focus their Asian portfolio investments in Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand.

Other participants of the seminar, co-sponsored by Japanese
joint venture securities firms, PT Nomura Indonesia, PT Asian
Development Securities, PT Daiwa Indonesia Securities, PT
Ichiyoshi Alfa Securities, PT Nikko Securities Indonesia and PT
Sanyo Primarindo Securities, were also of the same view about the
Japanese fund managers' response on the Indonesian capital
market.

Little

"Our investment in the Indonesian capital market is still very
small as compared to those in the Malaysian stock exchanges,"
said Masashi Hirata, an executive of the Japan Investment Trust
Management Co,.Ltd.

He said that the lack of knowledge about the Indonesian
capital market is one of the main reasons why only certain
Japanese securities firms have so far tapped the market's
promising outlook.

Speakers at the seminar, officially opened by the Indonesian
ambassador to Japan Poedji Koentarso, included Bacelius Ruru, the
chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam),
Marzuki Usman, the chief commissioner of the Jakarta Stock
Exchange (JSX), and Cyril Noerhadi, the president of the
Securities Depository and Clearing Agency (KDEI).

John Prasetio of Arthur Anderson Indonesia, Terry Underwood of
Arthur Anderson of Japan, Norimitsu Inaba, senior investment
officer of the Asian Development Bank's private sector department
were also among the speakers who mostly discussed the short-term
and long-term outlooks of the Indonesian capital market
development.

Rini Soewandi, a finance director of Astra International, and
Hasjim Djojohadikusumo, the president of PT Semen Cibinong, as
well as Nick Petroff, a senior advisor of Semen Cibinong,
explained achievements and programs of their firms, two of the
ten largest companies listed on the JSX.

First

The seminar, which attracted over 200 executives of Japanese
investment and securities firms, was the first promotion drive on
the Indonesian capital market held in Japan.

The JSX and Bapepam held a similar seminar in Singapore and
Hong Kong in February and plans another one in London in
September, and one in the United States next year.

Ruru acknowledged that the number of the Japanese investors on
the Indonesian capital market is still less than those from the
United States, Hong Kong and Europe.

He said that the small number of Japanese investors in
Indonesia was not only caused by the lack of promotion but could
also be due to their more conservative nature in making
investments.

"We are now here to tell the Japanese about the business
opportunities and we also want them to tap into the promising
potentials," Ruru told Japanese newsmen after the seminar.

Promoting a trading fairness is the most important thing in
attracting new buyers to the capital market, he said, adding that
the Indonesian government has improved many things, ranging from
trading infrastructure to the legal instruments to further
protect both shares issuers and the investing public.

Such approaches would not only make the Indonesian capital
market a safer place to foreign investors but also make trading
activities more efficient.