U.S. trade, investment mission comes to Jakarta

U.S. trade, investment mission comes to Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): A delegation of American companies arrived here
yesterday for a three-day mission to help build confidence in
Indonesia's battered economy.

The mission, organized by the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council,
will also visit Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila to consult with
officials and private sector colleagues on the region's economic
troubles.

"The mission is intended to build confidence and determine
areas where the U.S. private sector can play a positive role in
assisting the region as it works toward implementing reform and
resuming economic growth," the council said in a statement.

The region has fallen into economic turmoil and has slowed
down due to a loss of investor confidence in its economic
prospects following the devaluation of Thai baht on July 2, 1997.
The region is now undergoing massive economic reforms to return
to the path of high growth.

"The council's members believe that the region will see a
return to economic growth, and are committed to maintaining a
presence and acting as a positive force in the process of
economic recovery," it said.

Council members include more than 300 leading U.S. companies
doing business in the nine-member countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Brunei, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.

The council said it had long supported ASEAN's work toward
regional economic integration, namely the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA), which will come into being in 2003.

It said the mission would meet with officials responsible for
the development and implementation of AFTA.

"These 'nuts and bolts' measures create the kind of attractive
business environment that will help draw in the foreign capital
and technology that will support a return to economic growth,"
the council's president, Ernest Z. Bower, said.

"AFTA makes companies think of ASEAN as a regional market,
rather than a series of segmented markets, and will allow them to
make investment decisions accordingly.

"Thus, ASEAN becomes more competitive vis-a-vis other
developing markets in the global competition for foreign
capital," Bower said. (rid)