US-Indonesia Business Committee Ready to Work with New Government; Announces October Business Mission

US-Indonesia Business Committee Ready to Work with New Government
Announces October Business Mission

Washington, DC. The US-ASEAN Business Council's US-Indonesia Business Committee expressed its enthusiastic support for the peaceful transition that has unfolded in Indonesia and looks forward to working with the newly installed administration of Megawati Sukarnoputri. The Committee signaled its eagerness to fully engage the Megawati cabinet with the announcement of a major U.S. business mission to take place in October of this year.

"We intend to move quickly to support the new government in its efforts to build a business environment that will sustain increasing levels of prosperity in Indonesia," said Michael Gadbaw, Chairman of the Committee and General Electric Company Vice President. "With the transfer of power in Indonesia behind us, we hope to reinvigorate the economic/business policy discussion. The October mission will make for an excellent opportunity."

The Committee has undertaken several large business missions to Indonesia and engaged in an intensive public and private sector policy dialogue. The previous four annual business missions have engaged three different Indonesian presidents. The most recent in February, 2000, met with President Wahid and his cabinet.

Remarking on the Council's work with the previous government, Walter Lohman, Director of the US-Indonesia Business Committee said, "We always found President Wahid and his government to be quite accessible and cooperative. We are confident that we can continue our constructive dialogue with the Megawati government." He went on to say that the Committee has worked with several of Megawati's top advisors. "We anticipate," Mr. Lohman said, "that President Megawati will be every bit as welcoming to American business."

With the financial support of a number of its member companies, General Electric Company, Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold, and Unocal, the US-Indonesia Business Committee opened an office in Jakarta earlier this year to better serve the interest of its members. The office has positioned the Committee particularly well to immediately engage the new government.

"Earlier this year, we opened an office in Jakarta because we believed in Indonesia," said President of the US-ASEAN Business Council Ernest Z. Bower. "We still believe. We want to work with President Megawati to make the rest of the world understand and invest in Indonesia's incredible potential."

The US-ASEAN Business Council is a non-profit, national organization in the United States that works to promote increased trade and investment between the U.S. and the member countries of ASEAN. For information on the US-ASEAN Business Council or general information on the ASEAN region, please contact John Goyer at jgoyer@usasean.org or visit the Council's Web site at www.us-asean.org.

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