PACIFIC BASIN ECONOMIC COUNCIL
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Pacific Basin group to urge members to invest in Indonesia Catherine Ong The Business Times Tuesday, February 17, 1998 SINGAPORE -- The secretary general of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC) says he will advise members to invest in Indonesia as he sees the country offering attractive values, especially after March when he expects its socio-political situation to stabilize. Robert Lees, who was in Jakarta last week, told BT: "I will tell my members not to avoid Indonesia, to start looking around, to listen to their regional manager, their country managers, about investment opportunities. "I will tell them we will have to make Indonesia work, we will need to make everything possible to help them through this difficult time." PBEC is a Honolulu-based organization, which represents over 1,200 companies in the Pacific Rim with total sales of more than U.S.$4.2 trillion. They include major U.S. and Japanese corporations. Mr. Lees is visiting several countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia, to study the impact of the currency crisis on the region. He was here at the end of last week to initiate the formation of a Singapore chapter of PBEC. He said the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce has agreed to handle the administration for the PBEC office here and there are 10 core companies, including the City Developments group, Esso and Sembawang, which have expressed interest in becoming PBEC members. Mr. Lees noted that values in Indonesia have fallen to bargain basement levels and he expects the rupiah to bounce back after the March presidential election. While in Jakarta, he met with cabinet ministers and government officials and was impressed by their commitment to pull the country out of the present economic mess. He was particularly pleased that the World Bank chief James Wolfensohn visited Jakarta recently and appreciated the need for the Indonesian government to create employment. "They've been moving up to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) guidelines and it's very, very painful."