Soeharto promises less state intervention
Soeharto promises less state intervention
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto pledged yesterday to gradually dismantle all remaining economic protection and reduce as far as possible state intervention in the economy.
"In a free market world, nations must compete solely on the basis of the effectiveness and efficiency of their own economic systems," Soeharto said at the opening of a refresher course on the state ideology, Pancasila, for 97 top administrators of state-run universities.
The statement comes less than two weeks before the leadership meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Osaka, Japan, in which all 18 members, including Indonesia, are expected to provide details of their respective programs to liberalize trade and investment.
In their last meeting in Bogor, Indonesia, last year, the APEC leaders agreed to move towards a free trade area for the region, setting a deadline of 2010 for the industrialized countries and 2020 for developing countries. APEC officials have been working for the past year to produce an "Action Agenda" for the implementation of the Bogor Declaration in time for the Osaka summit.
Soeharto said yesterday that one of the biggest challenges facing Indonesia and other nations is opening up their economies and liberalizing trade.
"The switch to openness and free trade requires thorough preparations. If it's done suddenly, the new international economic order will become an arena of unequal competition between the advanced industrial countries and the developing countries," he said.
In such a scenario, the developing countries would be certain to lose out in the competition, he added.
The refresher course is being held at the Bogor Presidential Palace, the venue at which the historic Bogor Declaration was first read out to the world.
The President said APEC's developing countries should be given enough time to make the necessary preparations for the free trade era. "A quarter of a century isn't that long. That's why we have to thoroughly grasp this development in order to prepare the necessary steps."
Soeharto devoted the other half of his speech to Pancasila, saying that the ideology, together with the 1945 Constitution, was what had kept Indonesia united.
He said there is a strong national consensus regarding the implementation of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution.
"The spirit contained in both Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution is one of nationalism in a familial environment. In a nation that is so diverse, the spirit of nationalism is the one binding factors that must not be allowed to become loose.
"Experience has shown that without Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution there will be no unity and cohesion. Without unity and cohesion there will never be a Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," Soeharto said.
The President said he was delighted to see that the majority of the people in Indonesia have forged a common perception about the future of the nation and the direction of the country's development.
"If there are still differences, they are not really over issues of principle, but more over policies, strategy and implementation," he said, adding that these differences could be settled through deliberation. (emb)