Newsletter No. 666
News-Analysis
July 6, 2007

 

NORTH SULAWESI GOVERNOR HOLDS TALKS IN TOKYO

Antara has been reporting that North Sulawesi Governor Sinyo Harry Sarundajang was in Tokyo this week holding talks with Japanese officials. In particular, he held a meeting at the Imperial Hotel on the 4th with JICA officials and the Japan-Indonesia Society Association, which is headed by former Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Taizo Watanabe.

According to the reports, two major issues were touched upon in the meeting. The first of these related to concerns that Japanese investment would be impeded by local bureaucratic obstacles and delays in implementing needed economic reforms. The governor was largely upbeat: “We have to acknowledge some still believe that economic reforms have yet to be fully implemented in Indonesia, but I have ascertained that North Sulawesi is serious in cutting down various bureaucratic procedures and rulings which hamper investment.”

North Sulawesi is a largely Christian area of Indonesia, and has some form of regional autonomy, so the attitudes and performance of local officials is a concern for some Japanese investors. As the Antara report noted, “Japanese investors said that Indonesia did not have sense of speed in implementing its economic reform policies.”

As far as the JICA officials were concerned, they promised to do what they could to facilitate investment in North Sulawesi, and discussed with the governor which specific projects they might become involved with. The governor told the press that, “Japan was interested in the development of the fishery sector, agriculture, tourism and education.”

In a separate item, Governor Sarundajang was able to elicit Japanese support for North Sulawesi’s plan to host a World Ocean Conference in the provincial capital of Manado in March 2009. The governor had just received a positive response to his proposal from the UN in New York. They are hoping that the United States and China -- two countries that have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol -- will also participate.