Top investment priorities focus on garment and wood

Top investment priorities focus on garment and wood

JAKARTA (JP): The implementation of the new General Agreement
on tariffs and Trade (GATT) will help increase the
competitiveness of Indonesia's wood and textile products, leather
goods, electronics, and machinery on the world market, a minister
says.

"Indonesia, therefore, will put a high priority on the
promotion of the exports of these products in the coming years,"
Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto said in a
luncheon meeting with the Indonesia Financial Executive
Association (IFEA) here yesterday.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Indonesia's
exports of both wood and textile products went up -- wood by 30.8
percent to US$5.47 billion last year from $4.18 billion in 1992
and textile products by two percent to $6.18 billion from $6.06
billion.

However, exports of leather goods declined by 8.5 percent to
$73.66 million from $80.54 million.

The bureau's latest monthly report also shows that, last year,
the country's exports of machinery reached $180.3 million and
electronics reached $1.54 billion.

Hartarto said increasing exports was necessary for Indonesia
to earn more foreign exchange. He expressed that this was a
critical move for Indonesia, which would find it more and more
difficult to obtain soft loans for its development projects as it
developed economically.

Indonesia will also face fiercer competition from countries
such as China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Bangladesh in
attracting foreign investments for its industrial development, he
said.

Indonesia's total exports last year increased by 8.4 percent
to $36.82 billion from $33.96 billion last year.

Opportunities

Hartarto said the minister of trade is currently busy
communicating the results of the recently concluded Uruguay Round
of negotiations on GATT to businessmen, to encourage them to
seize the opportunities offered by the new agreement.

He said rapid growth in exports would help Indonesia maintain
its annual economic growth rate of seven percent.

To support the export promotion, the minister said that the
government would continue efforts to maintain the country's
political stability and its conservative macro-economic policies.

The government will also continuously introduce deregulatory
measures to improve efficiency, he said. "We have to create an
efficient bureaucracy to attract foreign investors," the minister
stated oxymoronically.

However, he declined to specify when the government would
announce its planned deregulatory measures. "Please, be patient
for the next announcement," the minister said.

A number of government officials have revealed that the new
deregulatory measures will allow foreign investors to hold more
equity in Indonesian projects and simplify licensing procedures.

An informed source said President Soeharto has signed the new
measures and will probably make an announcement this week.

Hartarto said yesterday that the government will also
encourage companies to improve their human resources to increase
productivity.

He explained that some 70 percent of Indonesia's trading
activities are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region,
particularly Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the United
States.(09)