Summers promises more support for Indonesia
JAKARTA (JP): U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers promised on Thursday to give more technical and financial support to Indonesia if the country continued with its political and economic reform program.
"In the context of continued reforms, the U.S. will continue to work bilaterally on a wide range of fronts to support lasting change in Indonesia," Summers told a business lunch jointly held by the American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia and the Indonesian Economists Association (ISEI) following a meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Bilateral support would be increased significantly over the next two years, said Summers, who arrived on Wednesday for a one- day visit as part of an Asian trip.
He said a team from the U.S. Treasury Department was in Indonesia to begin a program providing financial technical assistance to the government in helping fight corruption.
The team was assessing how it could best help the government at this crucial time, Summers said.
He stressed that U.S. knowledge of investigation techniques into financial corruption, known as "forensic accounting", would be shared with Indonesian officials in fighting graft.
Summers said the committed bilateral support was fundamentally not about its worth in dollar terms, but the quality of the technical support and the building of close ties.
He noted the importance of the people and societal organization of a country in which quality people with good organizational skills would provide the nation's economic strength.
"The strength of society depends on the human capital and social capital. It depends on the strength of organization outside the organization that represents the government."
He said the U.S. was emphasizing the importance of empowering non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia.
"Non-governmental organizations can be the most effective providers of social services, that they can build economic strength not from the top down, but from the bottom up."
He said the U.S. applauded the government for considering NGOs as a crucial part of the social support system.
At the multilateral level, Summers said, the U.S. also supported Indonesia in its efforts to reschedule its foreign debts to help the government carry through its national reform agenda.
"We are ready to work with other Paris Club creditors to achieve a generous rescheduling of Indonesia's obligation."
Summers also said the international community pledged about $10 billion over the next three years to Indonesia following the announcement of the International Monetary Fund's new program for the country.
He declined to elaborate, saying the details of the additional loan package were up to each of the international institutions in determining the disbursement parameters.
Summers gave his endorsement to the new draft state budget, officially unveiled on Thursday.
He was optimistic about the government's efforts to effect an economic recovery from the prolonged crisis, but acknowledged the challenge of law enforcement after years in which it was abused and disregarded by various sectors of Indonesian society.
He said in general the country's challenges in the months ahead were fundamentally political, but it was inseparable from "the economic challenge of creating a stable environment for a fully integrated and vibrant national economy". (udi)