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Despite Indonesia having yet to fully recover from the
financial crisis, and bedeviled by seemingly intractable problems with
the legal system and bureaucracy, giant multinational General Electric
still has high hopes of the country.
"Indonesia is really, I think, the lynchpin of Asean (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations). It is the biggest economy in the Southeast
Asia region, which is continuing to integrate more and free-trade
more," Stuart L. Dean, GE's president for Southeast Asia told The
Jakarta Post on Thursday.
But obviously, he said, the financial crisis of the late 1990s had had
a much bigger impact on Indonesia than on Thailand and Malaysia.
And burdened with budgetary constraints, the Indonesian government
still had limited options at its disposal, thus putting a further brake
on the efforts to bounce back.
"But I think it is heading in the right direction."
To accelerate economic growth, he stressed the need for the Indonesia
to speed up the development of its infrastructure.
"Every time we meet Indonesian officials and business people, the first
thing they say is that Indonesia needs more infrastructure. We hope
that we can help Indonesia to build world-class infrastructure," Dean
said.
He explained that in the future GE would continue to expand its
businesses in Indonesia. "Our chairman is visiting Indonesia this week
to really get a chance to see what Indonesia's priorities are and how
they align with what we can help with."
Dean said that GE, the world's biggest infrastructure company, was
considering expanding into the locomotive construction and biofuel
industries in Indonesia.
He said that in 1998, GE had secured contracts to refurbish and upgrade
old locomotives belonging to state-owned railways operator PT. Kereta
Api Indonesia (PT. KAI). On Thursday evening, GE handed over two
refurbished locomotives to PT. KAI.
Dean said that the upgrading of an old locomotive usually cost about
US$2 million.
"But we're thinking of making new locomotives in the future. The
Indonesian minister of transportation has also said on several
occasions that Indonesia needs to expand its railway infrastructure. So
they will need new locomotives," he said.
GE has been operating in Indonesia since the 1930s. It has five
subsidiaries -- PT. GE Lighting Indonesia, PT. GE Finance Indonesia,
PT. Astra Sedaya Finance, PT. GE Technology Indonesia and PT. GE
Nusantara Turbine Services -- which trade in a wide variety of fields,
including industrial equipment, machinery, aircraft leasing, water
treatment, turbine repair and overhaul, consumer finance and credit
cards.
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