U.S. seeks more economic support for Indonesia

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United States is looking for more ways to support Indonesia pursue its economic reform agenda, a visiting senior official of the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

Randal K. Quarles, assistant secretary for international affairs, told reporters that he was encouraged by the economic progress Indonesia had made these last 18 months, as evident by the country's increasing macroeconomic stability.

Quarles, who met with a number of senior Indonesian economics ministers as well as business leaders during his two-day visit to Indonesia, said that on his return to Washington, he would be looking at ways on how the United States could help Indonesia move along the economic reform program, as worked out jointly with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"I've been very pleased by what I was hearing from the trip. We would like to see Indonesia stay on this course," he said during a media briefing about his trip held at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce.

"There's obviously more to do," he added.

He declined to give specific details about the additional U.S. support, nor would he comment on whether this would translate into more money becoming available for Indonesia.

However, he said he was quite hopeful that the disbursement of the next IMF loan tranche to Indonesia, delayed since September, would soon take place.

Quarles served as the United States executive director at the IMF from August 2001 until March this year. As the single largest shareholder of the IMF, the United States is key to many of the IMF's major decisions, including on Indonesia.

The IMF board has delayed the latest disbursement pending guarantees from Jakarta about a number of issues that have not been resolved on time.

"These problems would be addressed in the next couple of weeks," he said confidently.

Quarles rejected the characterization that the U.S. economic support for Indonesia was "conditional" to Jakarta's cooperation in Washington's war on terror.

The Treasury Department, however, was interested in Indonesia's efforts at combating the financing of terrorism, he admitted.

Quarles said he raised the subject during his meetings with the Indonesian economics ministers, and that the United States was appreciative about the level of cooperation that Jakarta had given on this particular front in the war against terror.

Quarles' ringing endorsement of the Indonesian economy was somewhat at odds with the State Department's travel advisory warning Americans not to visit Indonesia, which was issued in the wake of the bomb attacks in Bali on Oct. 12 that killed nearly 200 people, mostly foreigners.

When asked about this, he said that based on his meetings with foreign business leaders in Jakarta, "security does not appear to be a major obstacle to investment, or economic growth".

"The issues that are most important to business is not security, but the business and investment climate," he said.

Quarles hoped that the Indonesian economy, and in particular the Balinese economy, would quickly recover from the impact of the Oct. 12 terrorist attacks.

He recalled that tourism in Egypt was badly affected by a massacre of tourists in the Luxor resort in 1997, but within 12 months the country saw the level of visitors return to as high as before the attack. Similarly, New York was able to recover quickly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he noted.

Quarles has a personal, if not romantic, reason for wanting to see Bali recover quickly -- he spent his honeymoon on the island in 1997.

"I will be the first person to encourage people to go to Bali as soon as the travel advisory is lifted," he said.