RI to use Japan guarantees

RI to use Japan guarantees

TOKYO (Dow Jones): The Indonesian finance minister told his Japanese counterpart during a meeting in Tokyo Monday that Jakarta wants to make use of Japanese bond guarantees in the future, according to a finance ministry official who attended the meeting.

In a briefing on the meeting, the ministry official said that Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa "listened" to Indonesian Finance Minister Bambang Subianto's explanation of his country's hopes to use the guarantees.

Miyazawa announced a plan to guarantee Asian sovereign debt at last month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, with the plan taking effect from Oct. 1.

Emerging from his meeting with the Japanese finance minister Monday, Subianto told reporters that he and Miyazawa had "follow- up discussions on the issue of bonds."

Subianto said it was "premature" to discuss the amount of bonds Indonesia plans to issue, adding that the two sides will have more discussions.

Subianto said that the Indonesian government has to make "careful preparations to ensure that risk is minimized."