Tunky urges big firms to invest overseas

Tunky urges big firms to invest overseas

JAKARTA (JP): The government has urged big Indonesian
businesses to invest overseas to build and strengthen networks to
penetrate foreign markets.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo said yesterday
that investing abroad would automatically create export
opportunities.

He cited Morocco as an example of a possible investment place
which could be used by Indonesian businesses as a springboard
into the increasingly-closed European market.

The European Union has accorded Morocco's products, with 60
percent local content, duty free entrance into its market.

"If we invest in Morocco, it means we open up opportunities to
enter Europe duty-free," Tunky said at an Indonesian-Morocco
business forum.

At the forum, Indonesian and Morocco officials signed
agreements on investment and air transportation which are
expected to augment trade between the two nations which is less
than $50 million a year.

State Minister of Investment Sanyoto Sastrowardoyo suggested
earlier that Indonesia form a board to coordinate local
businesses investing overseas.

But the chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Aburizal Bakrie, said such a board would burden
businesses with another bureaucracy.

In addition, Aburizal said many businesses did not want to be
overruled by anybody with regards to investing abroad.

"Businesspeople do have their own business judgment about
which investments are feasible and which are not. So, it is not
necessary to govern them," Aburizal was quoted by Antara as
saying.

He said local businesses would invest abroad more efficiently
and flexibly without such a board because they would make their
decisions unhindered.

He said the time was ripe for Indonesian businesses to invest
abroad because they had developed the capacity to do so.

"Yes, it is about time for our businesspeople to invest
abroad. But it is not necessary for it to be coordinated," he
said.

Speaking at a recent House Budgetary Commission hearing,
Aburizal said what Indonesian businesses really needed was the
government's moral and lobbying support for overseas investment.

He cited the United States government as one which lobbied
other countries, including Indonesia, on behalf of its companies.

"Helping businesspeople to invest abroad should not be a taboo
anymore for government officials because other countries have
done it for a long time," he said.

Property tycoon Ciputra agreed and said big businesses should
pioneer foreign investment to help medium and small companies
penetrate export markets.

"Large local businesses should not contest in the domestic
market anymore. They should not become only local winners, but
global ones," he said.

Ciputra said the domestic environment had made it possible for
local businesses to invest abroad.

"Investing abroad is no longer considered capital flight, and
people investing abroad are no longer branded as not being
nationalistic. So, it is good for us to start investing abroad to
tap export markets," he said. (rid)

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