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.