20 February 2009, ANZ Business Lunch, Sydney
Australia and Indonesia: Partners in a new era
Question and Answer session.
SPEAKERS: Australian Minister for Trade, Simon Crean, Indonesian Minister for Trade, Dr Mari Pangestu, and ANZ Managing Director, Alex Thursby
ALEX THURSBY: We're just running a little bit of short of time, but I would like, if we could just get two questions into the ministers. So who would like to go first? Please.
QUESTION: My name [indistinct], I'm from [indistinct]. from Indonesia. Actually, I'd like to ask both of you, recently I was also in the G20 meeting in Washington DC. Everybody agreed not to do any protection within three months after the meeting. And my understanding is a lot of - those who promise have, sort of, broken their promises. What about the record of Australia and Indonesia on this matter?
MARI PANGESTU: My friend Simon is asking me to go first.
Indonesia has not increased any protectionism that is WTO inconsistent. If you read the G-20 statement that's exactly what it says, that countries will not undertake - I think it has some specific wordings about export restrictions and greater barriers, something along those lines. That is not WTO inconsistent.
So Indonesia has not raised any tariffs. Other countries have raised tariffs but we have not raised any tariffs.
We have taken some steps which are more to do with better registering our imports so that we have a better database for imports and reduce the potential for illegal imports. But other than that I don't think Indonesia falls under the guilty category. But just to share with you the conversations that we've had on this very topic amongst trade ministers that - and I think the view out there, that WTO consistency is not necessarily… I mean, that's why just to reinforce Simon's point about the importance of completing the Doha negotiations. You need to - there is still a lot of water in even current WTO discipline, so we need to strengthen this discipline under the completion of the Doha Round.
SIMON CREAN: Just very quickly, Australia has not introduced any. In fact, we've been at the forefront of attacking those who have.
There are a number of the G-20 that have signed up to this that on the face of it would appear to have not carried out the resolution. That's an issue that the G-20, quite frankly, is going to have to come to grips with when it meets in April.
But to just reinforce the point that as important as the rules based system is, that is the WTO, there's still significant flexibility in it. And, as a good example, because one of the ones that we have attacked is the activation by the EC of dairy exports. That is legitimate under current WTO rules but would not be, would not be if we were able to conclude the current Round because they're specifically excluded.
And, again, I just think it's important to understand the significance of concluding Doha, not just for the dynamic that it produces, the positive impact it produces in terms of world trade, but to enforce the discipline that stops this move to protectionism.
ALEX THURSBY: Thank you. Just one more please.
QUESTION: infrastructure development has been a strong priority for the Indonesian government since the beginning of the current president's term. It's currently a very pressing priority for Australia, other governments around the world, and I assume equally increasingly pressing in Indonesia itself in view of the current global financial situation. Can you tell us what efforts are being made to really get infrastructure development going in Indonesia now? The impression I have from talking to many Indonesians as well as Australians is that it's been really stalled for the last five years for a whole bunch of reasons. And so I'd like to know what is the government's view of what can be done, is being done to really progress it with urgency, and what role you believe Australia can play and Australian business in infrastructure development in Indonesia.
MARI PANGESTU: Just very briefly, I think you can ask this question again in the next session and get a longer answer.
But basically we have - we recognise that there have been a lot of issues in the policy framework for infrastructure development. They mainly relate to the government procurement regulations as well as land acquisition. These are probably the two main areas.
On the government procurement - rigidity of the government procurement regulations, we've had lots of intensive discussions on this and the Minister of Finance has worked on some relaxation without compromising the control function of why these regulations are there in the first place, to be able to speed up the disbursement of funding for the use in infrastructure, as well as when it comes to partnership with the private sector. I believe some of them have already been passed and a few more are in the works.
And we have also, you know, in the 10,000 megawatt - acceleration of the 10,000 megawatt power generation there were a lot… there was a lot of discussion about this on how to have the kind of presidential decrees and so on to back up so that you… you know, you don't be inconsistent with the government procurement regulations. And that - I think that one is more or less on track for this year and next year realisation.
The second part is the land acquisition which, again, is still being worked out as to how to solve it finally. But there are already some improvements but I think one or two things still need to be finalised.
[ENDS]
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