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Part One - Section One
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What follows is a report written by
Chris Cockerill, editor of Asiamoney
and previously Asia editor of its sister
publication Euromoney. We commissioned
this report in order to use an original
format to convey management’s
perspectives, on Antam’s performance
and its outlook, while also providing an
objective perspective from a well-known
financial journalist. |
PART ONE:
Corporate governance and transparency are not terms that investors readily associate with ompanies in Indonesia. But there are some corporates that are trying to change that perception as they attempt to attract more foreigners to invest in them. Asiamoney’s Chris Cockerill went to meet one such company, Antam, the Indonesian mining company, to find out exactly how it plans to distinguish itself in a business environment tainted by corruption.
At the end of March when Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that he is determined to change the bad image of Indonesia to a good one by improving the country’s legal framework, fighting corruption and ensuring transparency, observers couldn’t help but sigh and suggest that they had heard it all before. Perhaps a natural reaction considering the number of false starts the country has had in attempting to do just this. Then when the international headlines proclaimed that Yudhoyono was seeking several billions of foreign investment to help him in the crusade, it only added to the skepticism since it became
apparent just how mammoth the task is that confronts him.
The government is no longer complacent or under any illusions; the country is tarnished. The words Indonesia and transparency, no matter what the spin, do not sit comfortably together and they are rarely said in the same breath by investors from inside, let alone outside, of the country. And it’s this problematic reputation that is affecting the entire business investment climate. Because the international investors with the money to plough into the country and help change and guide the country onto a path of strong sustainable economic growth are often unable to distinguishbetween those parts of the system that are rotten and those parts that are not. This is turn means that the companies that are attempting to follow solid and accepted international good business practices are lumped together with those companies that find reputable business practices as foreign as the investors that refuse to put any money into them.
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