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.