Taiwan is willing to help

Taiwan is willing to help

My letter to your newspaper (Dec. 30, 2002) was to clarify
some statements in Jusuf Wanandi's article Indonesia still
respects the one China Policy (Dec. 12, 2002). I have no
intention to start a war of the pen with anybody in The Jakarta
Post. Sia Ka Mou's abusive response (Jan. 6, 2003) to my letter,
however, compelled me to present more words to correct his
erroneous accusations.

Taiwan has been Bali's third largest source of visitors for
many years and "Go South" has been our investment policy since
1990. After the Bali bombing, our main concern was how to help
Indonesia revitalize her battered tourist industry and dwindling
foreign direct investment. Originally, President Chen prepared to
personally lead a group of businessmen to march into Indonesia to
develop industrial parks and promote tourism. Unfortunately, our
government now has to stop all of the plans. Mou's arguments
distorted the facts too much.

Mou claimed that Indonesia and China not only competed with
each other but also complemented each other. For this viewpoint,
I only want to quote the word of Rizal Ramli, former coordinating
minister for the economy, to rebut it. He said that ASEAN's Free
Trade Agreement with China would pave the way for China to
increase its exports to ASEAN, but not vice versa. The reason is
that China-ASEAN trade relations are fundamentally competitive
rather than complementary. In forging such a FTA, China's real
intentions are to make ASEAN as its backyard and to seek regional
hegemony.

Mou bragged that China's investments to Indonesia in 2002 had
increased a lot. Their investment items, however, were all energy
related. Why China does not use their domestic produced energy
first? Is it their strategy to conserve their own resources and
consume foreign energies instead?

Mou also defamed Taiwan's high-tech and machinery products.
Taiwan is the world's No. 3 computer products manufacturer. How
could we make it? It's because of our high quality products and
competitive prices. As for Taiwan's machines, Aswan Sjachril,
Secretary General of China committee, Indonesian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, recently said that Taiwan's machines were
reasonably priced but the quality was as good as that of highly
advanced countries.

DEREK HSU, Director Information Division Taipei Economic and Trade
Office, Jakarta