Tanri foresees hurdles in his new job

Tanri foresees hurdles in his new job

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for Empowerment of State
Enterprises Tanri Abeng said yesterday he might face many
political hurdles in his new job.

"That's why I must have support from the top," he said
yesterday after the first plenary cabinet meeting at the Bina
Graha presidential office, indicating that without support from
President Soeharto he might not be able to accomplish his tasks.

He stressed that the new ministry was established based on a
political decision, and that he would do his best for the
country.

"But if I can't handle it, I will delegate it to the top," he
said, stressing that political matters are not his business.

He said it would be regretful if the country's state-owned
companies, which had tremendous potential, were not developed.

Strengthening state-owned companies should be based on
professional principles, including an effective system run by
capable people, Tanri explained.

"We need to form an effective working mechanism," he said.

The ministry overseeing state-owned enterprises is a new post
in the current cabinet, and it is also Tanri's first cabinet
appointment.

Tanri is a former chief executive officer of the well
diversified Bakrie Group. Over the past couple of years, he was
posted in several strategic informal jobs, and following the
country's monetary crisis he was included in the Economic and
Financial Resilience Council formed by the President to deal with
the crisis.

Analysts have said that state-owned companies have been the
cash cow of powerful people, including the ministers technically
overseeing them.

During the previous cabinet's tenure, the public became aware
of opaque utilization of funds by state companies under the
Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Ministry of Post,
Telecommunications, and Tourism, the Ministry of Transportation
and the Ministry of Manpower.

As part of the country's IMF-sponsored economic reform
program, the government earlier this year moved the supervision
of state-owned companies to the Ministry of Finance from related
technical ministers.

This week, the President inaugurated a new state minister to
oversee state-owned enterprises.

It has yet to be decided where the new minister will have his
office, but Minister of Finance Fuad Bawazier said he wanted
Tanri Abeng to have an office on the same third floor with him.

"This would make coordination faster," Fuad said yesterday,
adding that he would help Tanri with the staffing.

He explained that Indonesia needed Tanri's expertise to
develop the country's 160 state-owned companies, including
privatizing the healthy ones.

Fuad said that with Tanri's installment, he could focus on
fiscal and monetary policy to fix the country's monetary
crisis. (08)