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Dian Arriffahmi, Dion Bisara & Muhamad Al Azhari, The Jakarta Globe

October 28, 2009

The central government will open a three-day summit today with the country’s top business and economic players to discuss ways the state can remove regulatory barriers that hamper investment and economic development. 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to deliver the opening speech at the National Summit, which runs through Saturday. The summit will include representatives from leading businesses, local and international financial institutions, and nongovernmental organizations, and academics and regional government officials. 

Yudhoyono is using the summit to lay out his administration’s new five-year development plan. 

The event is being closely coordinated with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) under the theme “To Create a Prosperous, Just and Democratic Indonesia.” 

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa, citing the president, said on Wednesday the Yudhoyono administration “wants a dialogue between all the country’s stakeholders, and through this dialogue the government expects to get concrete input to strengthen its programs.” 

Yudhoyono has said his administration is targeting economic growth of 7 percent to 8 percent by 2014, the 10th and final year of his presidency. 

One cabinet minister, who asked not to be named, said the central government would also unveil its 100-day program during the summit, which will include major regulatory reforms on spatial planning and land acquisitions for public-interest projects. The cabinet minister said the central government would take a centrist approach to synchronize contradictory regulations between the forestry, agriculture, mining and public works ministries. 

Complaints abound among investors about contradictory regulations that hamper key infrastructure projects such as toll roads. If a proposed road passes through farming, forest or mining areas, investors must deal with multiple and sometimes duplicate regulations that can grind projects to a near halt. 

Joachim von Amsberg, the World Bank’s country director for Indonesia, said the central government would send a strong signal about improving the investment climate if it took quick steps to consolidate responsibility for regulatory reform into a single state agency with the power to override other institutions. 

Bambang Soesatyo, a lawmaker from the House of Representatives’ budget commission and a senior member of Kadin, said the summit should specifically identify both central and regional government regulations that hamper investment. 

He said the summit must also address traditional investment problems, including illegal fees, corruption and the difficulty of obtaining business licenses.