INDONESIA Harder attitude on trade and aid

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 19

INDONESIA Harder attitude on trade and aid

i-'.i D/;.\7n H’EDEA'E/./

Indonesian attitude.": on trade and aid are' liai’dening. There are hints that Djakarta bapoeconie more seleutixe. Oilicials are requiring evidence trum would-I>e foreign investors that they can deliver tiie .goods or services promised. No! all New Zealand linns doing business with ln- ; >:• nesia have yet noticed anyi i difference, but a few busiinessmen have reported ' marked changes in small i mattei s. Until this year liidmem jhas been anxious to demon-j' i strate its economic stability j |and political reliability. But! |the post-Sukarno period is! I now behind it and the Su-j lharto Government is show-; png a readiness not evident; {before to call the tune ini I some areas. I Trade is one. Foreign aid I Hs another. ’ There have been reports! | that Indonesian exporters of| 'commodities have been tak-t< png advantage of the short-, ages in those markets this’! '-■ar tn make short.-t.erm 'gain: at the expense of tied: contr.m '.la! obligations. The reports refer to some cx- : porters only and do not sug-i gest that the practice has ;been widespread. DAMAGE DONE But evidently enough dam-1 |age has been done by somel !exporters of palm oil and!' rubber for Indonesia's hard- 1 won good name to be hurt.r This has been a year ofi speculation in commodities, 1 and any Indonesians are not 1 the only traders who have taken advantage of the situation. m a country where trading credit and foreign in- * vestment is so tightly controlled such things cannot 1 [happen without the Govern-p Iment’s being aware of them,; {even condoning them. ; On the investment side, ■ ihe Indonesians have reason! !to be wary of some of ihej I many proposals which are! [put before them. They have been let down! in the past. New Zealand,; ; according to people close to I The aid programme, has not!

defaulted, bin its fultiimem iuved by burejji.rd'jv butmt*1 \- ... / : , and services promi.-ed \ID INI HI \SI [the official development-aid programme now being :>nqilemented by the New Ze.i land Government (not without a great deal of strain being thrown on the -x i ternal aid division of the (Ministry of Foreign Artui'->i threatens • > bring an tensificat ion ot the present difficulties. One ot the ;< ihe lack of co-ordination between departments, cthei [agencies of the Government. ;and private enterprise. It t.I not unusual for two divi-: Isions of the Department of; ;Trade and Industry, two d:I visions of Foreign Affairs, I [Treasury, the Export Guariant.ee Office, the Reserve! ißank and perhaps the Inland! [Revenue Department to be' • all involved in some of the [bigger development projects lor joint enterprise proposals New Zealand firms are mow being asked in Indonesia such questions as: "Where is the monex coming iroiiT’" "Please show us your feasibililt studv." and "Gan you guarantee delivery; [and completion of the contract within IS months?" :These -are all proper ques-: [tions, and businessmen; [recently back from Indonesia; I concede that they are no! ‘more than New Zealanders; 'should expect. ; Some diplomats and students of foreign affairs suggest that what New Zealand is experiencing is the more business-like attitude which follows the first exchange of courtesies between nations; and, second, evidence of Indonesia’s growing selfconfidence eight years after [Sukarno was overthrown. I But businessmen who I know the importance of for-, [eign aid to Indonesia (and to i the success of some of their! | own ventures in that coun-i ! try) contend that Djakarta [should not forget, that the I international foreign aid club [is a small one. I What, is new is the tone, l of authority in the voice of

them. New Zealand bus - men. '•alexm.-n. and coiicomparatixeh ic.i-m diui In une air,, .-, u always kepi -irici „ir ... fhis is m allocating human Bi a - Overseas. Am-'in.,- H. Corps ami New Zealand s Volunteer Service Abroad Indonesia hn- u- own h o ni e-servu <■ toiimte-'r scheme undei winch giaduales work foi a vear o: two ; perhaps more, m assigned posts, on saiarx I'he salaries are about the same as a :teacher's. b(J they ait not : )ow by Indonesian standard-. It is nut unusual, in parts ot Asia, for graduates to .face unemployment on leav- • iing university 1 The home-service scheme! is one of the wavs in which 1 Indonesia copes with that! 'position. It is, to ‘licit mind, 'a sensitive question D.IAK \K 1 \ SI NSII l\ I Mr R. 11. H Moehlau, sheiretary of the Technical looperation and Co-ordination, Committee of the Indont sian Government, used the word 1 sensitive to describe how Djakarta felt about it when (being questioned during Ins i visit to Wellington in Sep [tember. He was speaking al a meeting of the Wellington! [branch ot the Institute ofl ilnternational Affairs, and the! [question sounded like a rou-j tine one to most of the New Zealanders present For this reason, the politi-l cal sensitivity, the In-J donesian Government is careful about how many for-' eign volunteers it accepts, their qualifications and experience, and where it places' them. Often they are postedto localities which were not; the overseas agency’s first[ choice. I 1 J'’ » traol sentence ■I The leader of a Soviet 1. Baptist sect, 1.. I Reimer, [who told schoolchildren that everything in Soviet society 1 was "satanic” has been ? gaoled for five years. — ’'Moscow, April IS