JAKARTA, Feb 8: A team appointed by president Suharto has stepped up work to resolve Indonesia's hefty foreign private debt burden after obtaining a fuller picture of the problem.Radius Prawiro, a former minister appointed by Suharto to head the debt negotiation team, is being assisted by prominent businessman Anthony Salim, from the leading Salim Group conglomerate, textile and steel entrepreneur The Nin King and electronics manufacturer Rachmat Gobel.
Prawiro said on Friday that the country's foreign debt totalled $137.42 billion at the end of last year, with government debt accounting for $54.16 billion and state-owned corporations for $9.3 billion.
Private foreign debt totalled $73.96 billion, including $11.91 billion debt in short-term notes.
``The $73.96 billion private debt is not all a bad debt. This is a figure we would like to start from because we know exactly how many companies are involved in this figure," Salim said in a telephone interview on Saturday.
The breakdown disclosed thatsubsidiaries of multinational corporations and joint venture companies and banks made up almost half of the private sector foreign debt.
Detailed data showed that foreign and joint venture companies owed $30.52 billion as of December, while a further $499 million was owed by foreign banks and $3.75 billion by joint-venture banks. This did not include $11.91 billion of short-term notes owed by national, foreign and joint-venture companies. ``Don't put all the blame on local companies. We have to segregate. If the debt is owed by foreign firms, they have to help seek a solution. If this is a domestic debt, we have to sit down to look for a solution," Salim said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
