RI starts campaign for ASEAN investors
RI starts campaign for ASEAN investors
SINGAPORE (AFP): Indonesia launched a campaign Tuesday to lure
Southeast Asian investors despite lingering political and
economic concerns about the crisis-hit nation.
Indonesian political leaders and economists, speaking at the
first of several conferences in the region to woo investors,
urged them to take the risk and pounce on business opportunities
for bigger returns.
"I admit there are still uncertainties but you can make more
money when there is more risk," Iman Taufik, special envoy of
President B.J. Habibie to the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), told reporters.
Indonesia, where separatist and communal violence remains a
major concern, held parliamentary elections in June, the first
since the fall of president Soeharto. The presidency will be
decided in November.
Opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian
Democratic Party-Struggle won the general election. Habibie is
her main rival in the presidential race.
Taufik urged Southeast Asian investors to take advantage of an
ASEAN investment incentive scheme to pump their money into
Indonesia.
Under an ASEAN deal last year, special incentives such as tax
holidays and simplified land acquisition procedures are offered
to those investing in member economies up to December 31, 2000.
"The benefits will not be there after the year 2000. So this
is the time," said Taufik, the deputy chairman of the Indonesian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN).
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Taufik was speaking during a conference organized by the
Singapore Trade Development Board and KADIN to promote foreign
investment in Indonesia.
He said conferences would also be held in other ASEAN states.
Indonesia was the hardest hit by the Asian economic crisis
which began in mid-1997. The International Monetary Fund put
together a 46 billion dollar bailout in return for reforms
including privatization.
Aburizal Bakrie, the head of KADIN, assured foreigners that
Indonesia was on its way to recovery, citing the dramatic drop in
inflation from 77 percent in 1998 to only 1.7 percent in the
seven months of 1999.
"The IMF predicted that Indonesia's GDP in fiscal 1999 and
2000 will be positive, in fact possibly reaching two percent," he
said.
He admitted that the pace of restructuring was slow but
assured investors that it was continuing.
Wong Kok Siew, deputy chairman of Singapore's Trade
Development Board, told reporters that Singapore companies were
interested in investing in Indonesia's agricultural, tourism and
electronics sectors.
"I think things will improve. Indonesia is opening up and
allowing foreigners in. They are heading in the right direction,"
said Wong.
Reports in July said the value of approved foreign direct
investment in Indonesia in the first half of 1999 plunged 77
percent to US$1.88 billion compared to $8.35 billion a year
earlier.