Luhut Briefs Dutch Investors On Indonesian Economic Reform

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, briefed chief executive officers of Dutch large scale companies in The Hague on Tuesday about the Indonesian economic reform and situation.

"I can tell you that the economic situation in Indonesia is better now than the previous year. Only recently, the World Bank issued a statement that Indonesia is a proper place to invest. Also, rating agency S&P has upgraded Indonesia's sovereign ratings to investment grade some time ago," he stated in a press statement released on Wednesday.

After all, the Indonesian government still has a lot of things to improve, including eradicating poverty in the southern part of Java Island, he noted.

"We are also focusing on developing the educational sector, lowering poverty rate, and promoting the public welfare," he added.

The minister remarked that Indonesia badly needs skill education to produce workers who are ready to work in the industrial sector.

The Indonesian government has been restricting the issuance of permits to export raw materials while, at the same time, encouraging domestic industries to process the raw materials to obtain added value, he explained.

"In an effort to promote the public welfare, we not only eradicate poverty, which is one of the main causes of radicalism, but also increase palm oil production and exports to help improve the welfare of about 20 million oil palm plasma farmers and their families. We will travel to several cities in Europe to discuss the benefit of oil palm for the Indonesian community," he revealed.

He stated that poverty eradication is also aimed at preventing radicalism, which may have an adverse impact on state security.

The CEOs of the Dutch companies praised the Indonesian government for all the efforts.   (WDY)