RI ranks second in dealing with crisis

RI ranks second in dealing with crisis

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia ranks second best, after Malaysia,
among Southeast Asian countries in dealing with the monetary and
stock market crisis, according to a poll of Asian executives.

A survey by Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review
magazine and Singapore-based Asia Business News (ABN) television
showed that 42 percent of some 300 respondents picked Malaysia as
having best dealt with the crisis.

Of the remaining respondents, 29 percent chose Indonesia, 21
percent selected the Philippines and 8 percent pinpointed
Thailand.

The Dow Jones wire service, which owns 50 percent of ABN, said
the poll respondents included business chairpeople, managing
directors, and other top corporate executives in 10 countries in
the Asia-Pacific region.

In answering the question on which country would recover
quickest from the crisis, 56 percent of respondents chose
Malaysia, 20 percent favored the Philippines, 20 percent picked
Indonesia and only 4 percent chose Thailand.

The region has been suffering from a currency and stock market
crisis for several months since the devaluation of the Thai baht
on July 2.

The Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso and
Malaysian ringgit have lost value against the U.S. dollar by 25
percent to 35 percent since July.

To cope with the crisis, the Indonesia government has taken
several measures, including tightening rupiah liquidity, raising
interest rates and canceling government and state-related
projects worth about US$39 billion.

Dow Jones said 90 percent of the respondents believed the
crisis would slow down the region's overall economic growth, with
100 percent of those polled in Malaysia and Indonesia believing
so.

The crisis will also slow the pace of economic reform,
according to 63 percent of respondents, which was expected by 89
percent of those polled in the Philippines and 75 percent in Hong
Kong and Malaysia.

However, only 60 percent of respondents in Indonesia said
economic reform would be slow in response to the crisis. (jsk)