RI unprepared for free market: Tycoon

RI unprepared for free market: Tycoon

JAKARTA (JP): A prominent businessman has warned that
Indonesia will not be ready to face tighter competition in the
free market era after 2003 due to the poor coordination among its
companies and the poor quality of its human resources.

According to Antara, Sofyan Wanandi, of the Gemala Group, said
Saturday, "How can we be ready within seven years to compete in
the free market era if there are no organized preparations, while
coordinated cooperation among small, medium and large businesses
has not been established?"

Indonesia and the other members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), under the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA) agreement, are committed to liberalizing their trade by
2003.

Besides Indonesia, ASEAN groups Brunei, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Supporting medium and small businesses in the globalization
era is not easy for bigger enterprises, which are already
occupied with tight competition against foreign companies,"
Wanandi told a workshop held to commemorate Youth Pledge Day.

The meeting also presented Minister of Transmigration Siswono
Yudohusodo as a speaker.

Wanandi also said that Indonesia's education system should be
able to produce more specialized experts by, for example,
introducing computers to elementary students, if the country
wants to prepare better human resources to face free market
competition.

However, Siswono is more optimistic than Sofyan. Siswono
quoted futurologist Hamiss McRae as saying: "Indonesia will be
the biggest country in the 21st century after Japan and China in
the Asia Pacific region."

The minister also quoted a World Bank report stating that
during the period from 1994 to 2000, the economies of East,
Southeast and South Asian countries will grow two-and-a-half
times faster than the European countries and the United States.
(06)