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Technology Stocks : INDONESIA'S PT TELECOM(TLK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Duke who wrote (201)	2/3/1998 7:59:00 AM
From: Duke	Respond to of 947

Suharto says Indonesia should reveal debt details By Muklis Ali JAKARTA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Indonesia's President Suharto was quoted on Tuesday as saying it was crucial that the country revealed details of its corporate private debt to financial markets to help strengthen the rupiah currency. ''The president said it is very crucial that (we reveal) the details of corporate debt, including how much is owed by multi-nationals, how much by joint ventures and how much by pure Indonesian companies, and how much is short term debt,'' businessman Tantri Abeng said after meeting Suharto. Abeng, who heads one of the Bakrie Group companies, is a member of a council chaired by the president and established to strengthen the country's economy and finance. Abeng said Suharto had asked him to help a team headed by former finance minister Radius Prawiro seeking ways to deal with the country's crippling private foreign debt, estimated at around $66 billion. Prawiro last week proposed what in essence was a pause in debt repayments to enable committees of debtors and creditors to work out the problem on a voluntary case-by-case basis. ''The details are important because at the end of the day what we should see is the extent of the private debt problem,'' Abeng said. ''If the data is clear and we can communicate with the market, market reaction should not be too bad. Because if the private short-term debt is not too big, demand for dollars will not be too big,'' he said. He also said it was important to reschedule short-term private debt in the interests of both debtors and creditors. ''If the debt cannot be paid at the due date...there is a need for rescheduling. It is in the interest of both parties, just the debtors but the creditors too,'' Abeng said. Abeng said a World Bank team currently in Indonesia would explain their experience in handling private debt. He added that the government wanted to ensure business continued as normal to avoid more unemployment.