Welcome Premier Zhu

Welcome Premier Zhu

A very special guest is coming to town this Wednesday: Chinese
Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, who is starting his four-day official
visit. The visit, the first by a Chinese prime minister to
Indonesia in 11 years, is very special in more than one respect.
Indonesia would do well to take advantage of and explore the
opportunities presented by this occasion.

China has undergone a massive transformation in recent years
and it is no longer the backward communist state it once was.
Although the majority of its massive 1.2 billion population still
lives in poverty, and although on paper at least it is still a
communist state, China is well on its way to rapidly becoming one
of the world's major economic powers. With the rest of the global
economy going into a recession while its own continues to boom,
and with Japan fast becoming a spent economic force, China's
economic rise is even more pronounced.

China is already absorbing more than two-thirds of all the
foreign direct investment bound for Asia, coming, of course, at
the expense of other countries in the region, including
Indonesia. Many Indonesian investors had themselves got their
feet in China's door long before the economy back home tumbled.

With Beijing recently gaining admission to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the scene is set for China to become one of
the world's largest international trading nations.

This is a completely new, modern and very confident China that
the rest of the world has to deal with. In Beijing we find a
regime far less ideologically inclined and far more pragmatic
than the one we knew perhaps as recently as a decade ago. This is
a new China that can, and will, exert its influence on the rest
of the world through a combination of its sheer geographical and
population sizes as well as, now, its economic power.

Indonesia, like the rest of the world, is dealing with a
completely transformed and more powerful China. Jakarta would do
well to review its ties with Beijing, and to establish a new kind
of relationship, taking this new reality into account.

The visit by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji offers a great
opportunity for both countries to put that relationship on a new
footing. Going by the news from Beijing last week, the visit will
place a particular emphasis on economic cooperation. Zhu Rongji
reportedly will be making a new pledge of assistance to
Indonesia.

We certainly believe that economic cooperation between the two
largest countries in East Asia can go beyond China simply giving
aid to Indonesia. Investment is one sector worth exploring. With
its massive foreign exchange reserves, China is already under
pressure to begin exporting capital abroad. Indonesia, like the
rest of Asia, is well positioned to become one of the main
recipients of China's investment if it plays its cards right.
Allowing the Bank of China to reopen its office in Jakarta, for
example, would be a step in that direction.

But this is a very special visit, most of all, because of the
man himself. Zhu Rongji is the brain and the chief architect
behind China's economic success. The former Shanghai mayor --
that is another success story in itself -- guided China's economy
through good and bad times in the last 10 years, first as deputy
prime minister and, since 1998, as prime minister.

This is a man who is not only visionary, but is also willing
to take measures that are politically unpopular with members of
the Communist politburo, such as when he closed down inefficient
state companies. This is also the man who fought tirelessly for
China's admission into the WTO. In short, this is the man who is
chiefly responsible for transforming China over the last 10 years
into its present state, and in doing so, he is also the man
responsible for changing the global power equation, hopefully for
the betterment of not only his own people, but also for the
people of the Asian region.

Indonesia could not be more privileged in having a man of Zhu
Rongji's international stature as a guest. On that note, we wish
to welcome the Prime Minister to Indonesia, and hope that his
time here will be spent productively, for the benefit of the
people of both countries.