Soeharto launches book on RI economy

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto officially launched yesterday a two-volume book analyzing the country's economy.

The 700-page book is expected to help the government in efforts to promote Indonesia to foreign investors who often know little about the situation here, the book's editors said.

Titled Indonesia's Economy: Entering the Third Millennium, the book gives a comprehensive description of Indonesia and is published both in Indonesian and English.

"This book is expected to give a better understanding of Indonesia, especially for those who still think negatively about (the country)," one of the editors, Marzuki Usman, quoted Soeharto as saying.

The president director of Texmaco Group, Marimutu Sinivasan, said he started the book after the President suggested it.

"In one of our meetings, he complained that we still didn't have any publication about Indonesia's economic progress over the past 50 years," Sinivasan said after attending the book-launching ceremony at the Bina Graha presidential office.

Sinivasan was a member of the book's editorial staff, together with the dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Economics Dorodjatun Kuntjorojakti, president director of state- owned bank BNI Widigdo Sukarman, business tycoon Hashim S. Djojohadikusumo, and chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory Agency I Putu Gede Ary Suta.

The book contains analyses and comments from no less than 100 prominent economists, businessmen and cabinet ministers.

As a complement to the book, the publisher also released a CD- ROM containing data on 14,000 Indonesian enterprises, 3,000 exporters and 286 publicly listed companies.

The book and CD-ROM will be available soon at local and overseas bookstores. The price of the book is US$180 and the CD- ROM $50.

"The President also hopes the book will be available at local libraries," Marzuki said. (prb)