No Foreign Investors Leaving Indonesia

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Chatib Basri said no foreign investor had left the country due to workers' rallies of late.

"There is no companies under the BKPM which have left Indonesia due to labor demonstrations of late. Foreign firms have paid salaries than the minimum regional provincial wage (UMP). They are only nervous if demonstrators conduct sweeping at firms and force other workers to join their rallies," the BKPM Chief said on Monday.

He said that foreign companies were not affected by the rallies themselves. They only affected small companies, namely local or domestic companies.

"So, the rallies themselves pose no problem as long as they are held without violating the law," Chatib said at the State Palace.

With regard to a brick factory which  reportedly stopped production, the BKPM head said the factory had halted its production temporarily.

"As far as I remember they have never said they will leave Indonesia. I have talked to its CEO. They never said they will leave Indonesia. What they are doing  is temporarily closing the factory. It is a temporary closure because the company continues to be disturbed by demonstrators," he said.

He said that up to Monday, he had never received yet any letter from foreign companies saying they would close their business.

Chief economic minister Hatta Rajasa  said on Saturday that no foreign investors had plans to leave the country following recent labor demonstrations.

"I have checked with the head of BKPM (the Investment Coordinating Board) and (found) no investor have said such a thing," he said at a dialog on economic nationalism here on Saturday. (*/T007)