Politics and Rice
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2017 Highlights
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Unease of Doing Business
The World Bank recently announced that Indonesia jumped 19 places in its ease of doing business rankings to 72 out of 192 countries. (It ranked 114 at the time of President Jokowi’s election). Before we cheer too loudly its important to understand that the positive ratings change has come by the bank’s analysis of regulations […]
The Women Have It !
Separated by thousands of miles of geography but not in their attitude toward the workplace, 13 women C-Suite executives from the US and Indonesia met each other and 170 other guests at AICC’s US-Indonesia Women’s CEO Summit on October 11 in Washington, DC. They represented a diversity of companies: banks, law firms, mining, oil/gas, retail, […]
New Beginnings
It’s the end of August, people are preparing to return to the grindstone after holidays and new beginnings are in the offing. After months of back and forth, Indonesia and Freeport announced a new way forward that –at least for the moment—appears satisfactory; it’s an agreement to move ahead towards an agreement without either side […]
A Positive Narrative
If I look back over the past year, the story lines surrounding Indonesia have mostly been negative. Of course, part of the reason is that the main principle of the media is that “bad news sells”. On Indonesia’s side there have been natural disasters (flooding, mudslides, eruptions etc.), commercial concerns (halal import restrictions, local content […]
Pancasila to the Rescue
May 31, 2017 Some say today’s Indonesia is not your father’s Indonesia. A political scientist I know believes that in 15 years all of Indonesia will be under sharia law. I am not so sure. The heart of the secular basis of Indonesia’s republic has always been the Pancasila or 5 principles. They are: Belief […]
Ambiguity and Sadli’s Law
May 9, 2017– My recent visit to Indonesia underlined a defining feature of Indonesia’s political economy: ambiguity. The common theme among all my meetings with local as well as international business people was that contradictory regulations, shifting political winds, side-wise legal decisions, were all hampering an economy that should be growing above 5%. So every […]
Is Barbie Guilty ?
I will be visiting Indonesia next week and will likely be asked about President Trump’s trade policy, articulated in his recent executive orders. Will Indonesia, one of 16 countries under review with a large trade deficit, be penalized. Is it really a trade “cheater” ? The US runs a congenital deficit with Indonesia mostly because […]
Indonesia’s Ticking Time Bomb
Commentary by Wayne Forrest I fear a ticking time bomb could soon explode in Indonesia. Its probably not what you think; its not a natural disaster or mass movement based on religion. It has to do with natural resources and the origins of the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (AICC) and some of its founding […]