Rini to present Indonesia fund in New York

Rini to present Indonesia fund in New York

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M.S. Soewandi said that
she would present the concept of the Indonesian Recovery Fund
(IRF) at a meeting with international financial institutions in
New York in January next year to invite the institutions to
invest.

"I am optimistic that the IRF will be established in January
and financed by international financial institutions," she was
quoted by Antara as saying.

Rini said that although Indonesia's political and economic
condition remained unstable, both international and domestic
financial institutions have given positive responses to the IRF
idea.

"We will mobilize funds from both domestic and international
sources, because so far the recovery of our industries are
stunted by lack of funds," she said on Thursday.

The government has already drawn up a list of industries that
needed prioritizing, Rini said, quickly adding that IRF's
investors would have the last say to which sectors would be given
priority, but that she hoped they would take into consideration
the government's proposal.

Rini said earlier that the IRF would be similar to a recovery
fund established by the Thai government a year after it was hit
by the 1997 regional financial crisis.

Initial funding for the fund was expected to reach US$200
million in which the government would contribute $10 million.

Among the investors in the Thailand fund were ADB, Japan Bank
for International Cooperation (JBIC), Kreditanstalt fur
Wiederaufbau (KfW) of Germany and State Street Corporation of the
United States.

The fund invests in companies that are expanding or
restructuring and to a limited extent in start-up companies.

Since the Asian financial crisis, many small and medium-sized
enterprises have limited access to financing for expansion or
restructuring. The fund helped to address this problem and
assisted in restoring investor confidence in the Thai economy.