Wednesday December 15, 2004 - AN EFFECTIVE way to discourage Indonesiansfrom looking for work overseas is for the republic to provide them withmore job opportunities. On its own, it does not have the means to do so.

It will require a lot of outside help to achieve this target. This meansmore foreign investment to stimulate its economy. But in order to do so,Indonesia must first provide investors with the right incentives toattract their interest.

Under years of mismanagement and malpractice under the Suharto presidencyand the lack of action of his successors, its economy had gone evenfurther downhill.

At least under Suharto, there was strong leadership and politicalstability but this was noticeably lacking under his two successors.

Foreign investment was almost at a standstill and the foreigners are stillwaiting for the proper mechanisms to be put in place that will give themconfidence to go back and start projects.

The new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has given hope that thingswould change soon for the better but the foreign investors have yet to beconvinced though the signs so far are promising.

Malaysian businessmen are among the first to go back by buying up sharesin Indonesian corporations.

Many of them, such as the Guthrie group, have bought or started new oilpalm estates.

They had done this under the previous administrations. But they have beendisappointed by the attitude of the Indonesian officials resulting intheir existing projects either being stalled or unable to get off theground due to red tape and corruption.

Hopefully the new president will be able to change this situation and makeit easier for foreign investors to invest their funds in the republic.Indonesia needs more projects to provide jobs for its millions ofunemployed.

He has made some very strong commitments on how his administration will doall it could to convince the foreign investors that things have reallychanged for the better. But the world will just have to wait and see howthings will pan out.

Over the years, Malaysian plantations and the construction sectors hadturned many of their Indonesian workers to be skilled ones in these twoindustries. They will be able to provide the nucleus of the workforce thatIndonesia will need to develop its economy.

Apart from the billions the Indonesian workers in Malaysia had sent homeover the years, the chance for them to acquire new skills was asignificant contribution to meet the republic’s demand for such trainedpersonnel.

The Indonesian leadership and people should not forget the part played byMalaysia in boosting its demand for more skilled workers, which will be animportant factor to attract investors interested in these two sectors.

This is a positive development and the Indonesian media andnon-governmental organisations should not pay too much emphasis onnegative issues such as maid abuse and harassment and treatment of itspeople who are here illegally.