第十七台印尼經濟合作會議專輯  

附件五 印尼商工總會台灣委員會主席Mr. Agum Gumelar致詞稿

Opening Remarks
by
Mr. Agum Gumelar
Chairman, Indonesia Chamber of Commmerce-TaiwanCommittee
CIECA
at
The 17th Joint Economic Cooperation Conference
between Indonesia and Taiwan

It is such a great pleasure to be here today, I would like to thanks for the invitation to join at this important event where, various investors, business leaders and senior government officers gather to have a constructive dialogue, which is very important for expanding the bilateral trade and investment cooperation between Indonesia and Taiwan.
It is increasingly recognized that intensive communication and discussion, such as what we have on this event, becomes more important both from the authorities’ perspective as well as from investors’ point of view. In particular, in the periods where despite signs of a growing global economic recovery, some uncertainties remain. The most recent concern on global recovery is on the sustainability path of the recovery and the further possible impact of the most recent global crisis that just emerged in some Europe countries and United States.

With that background, I will start today with briefly describing the prospect of Indonesian economy and its challenge ahead. During the most recent global crisis, which we all knew as one of the
worst global crises in history, the Indonesian economy has demonstrated to be fairly resilience. Despite some negative impacts on the economy, particularly in the domestic financial market, the Indonesian economy was still experiencing a positive growth. That achievement was mainly
sustained by high and inclusive growth of domestic demand, in particular consumption. Indonesia is relatively less exposed to external shocks than other economies in the region.

What Indonesia has achieved so far shows that various measures taken by the Indonesian authorities can be reasonably considered effective. The fiscal and monetary stimulus employed in measured manner has helped the economy to endure from external shock. The various policies were mainly aimed at maintaining confidence to cope with panic and fear of scarce liquidity, and preserving domestic purchasing power.

With regard on how Indonesia was dealing with the recent global crisis, Indonesia has actually employed all that has been learned from a painful 1998 crisis. Ever since, the 1998 crisis has brought structural changes in Indonesian economy and financial system, and more importantly in political structure. Indonesia was transformed into one of the largest democratic country in the world.

This is as a result of more than ten years of consolidation and dynamic transition in almost all sectors. The extensive transformation measures became a continuing agenda with full commitment.

In the last ten years, we have embarked upon a far-reaching transformation measures, especially in the area of improving our institutional capacity. During this process, the Government has taken steps to improve our economic efficiency through policy reform packages covering key areas of concern, such as taxes, customs, legal frameworks, and the financial sector. So to speak, one of the most notable steps are the introduction of open capital account through promulgating Law No. 24 of 1999 and increasing the investment flexibility by stipulating Investment Law No. 25 of 2007 to encourage
offshore financing for the economy.

Years of strong commitment on reform has resulted in a resilient economic fundamental, at least, in the last five years. The economicgrowth accelerated to a 10-years high. Fiscal consolidation significantly
reduces government debt, a proof of commitment of fiscal discipline.

Prudent macroeconomic management has also led to the declining trend of inflation and exchange rate volatility as well. In the financial sector, the banking sector is well capitalized and in a better balance sheet structure. The recent update from some rating agencies has become a promising recognition into the fundamental transformation process in Indonesia. Following Standard and Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s, OECD has also upgraded Indonesia’s Country Risk Classification ranks from 5 to 4 on early April 2010. Similar progress also came from the ranking upgrade of our global competitiveness index from in 2003 to 54 recently.

Prospect and challenge ahead Global recovery coupled with favorable risk perceptions support our optimism toward the outlook in 2011. We are quite confident that the Indonesian economy will grow at around 6.0–6.5% range in 2011. This is mainly supported by the upturn on export and increasing investment. For the next periods, we expect that the economy will keep growing in an upward trend given the proven strong commitment from the Government to implement reform measures on infrastructure projects and investment climate. On the later, it is important to note that the public check and balance mechanism, to ensure a more efficient bureaucracy and to improve business climate, has been increasing significantly compare to a decade ago. Meanwhile, the continuing prudent fiscal policy by maintaining public debt at the manageable level will ensure fiscal sustainability, to sustain economic growth commitment.

While on the external side, current account and capital account areexpected to continue reasonably strong. Overall balance of payment is expected to strengthen, partly supported by an increasing trend of foreign direct investment.

Stronger domestic demand combined with monetary and investment policies boosted investment in past few years and still expected to grow positive in years ahead. Further, Taiwanese investment in Indonesia has shown a steady increase during the past few years. Indonesia has become a favorable location for Taiwanese investment because of its more stable economic and political situation, booming domestic consumption, and proximity to the markets of neighboring South East Asian countries.

However, we are fully aware that despite growing positive signs of the economic prospect, yet many domestic agendas are still required to ensure their implementation, but of course it is more in a consistent step-by-step progress, rather than in an instant change.

Based on those facts, we are optimistic that bilateral business relationships between Indonesia and Taiwan will continue to prosper this year and the upcoming years. Given the context, The Indonesian
Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) - Taiwan Committee, together with Indonesian Economic And Trade Office (KDEI-Taipei) and the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) will jointly play
active role in providing information regarding the investment opportunities and policy in Indonesia in order to facilitate as well as to accelerate the Business-To-Business relationship between Indonesia and
Taiwan entrepreneurs.

As closing speech, I would like to express our great hope that this event will be useful for all of us in widening and increasing the business relationships between Indonesia and Taiwan as well as to maintain such confident to our fellow Taiwan entrepreneurs for establishing new investments in Indonesia steadily.

Thank you for your time and attention.