Jakarta – Indonesia's major creditors have agreed to roll over the country's debt repayment based on an agreement in the Paris Club of official creditors, a report said on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Prijadi Praptosuhardjo said that in addition to Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States have also agreed to reschedule Indonesian debts.
Prijadi, however, gave no figure. Earlier Japan was reported agreeing to roll over the repayment of government debts totaling up to US$2.7 billion.
A Japanese official was quoted as saying earlier that debts in official development assistance (ODA) will be rescheduled for 20 years and debt outside ODA will be rolled over for 15 years.
Prijadi described as very important the role of Japan in bringing success to Paris Club II negotiations. Under the Paris Club II agreement in April 2000 Indonesia has to negotiate with 22 donor countries on a total debt of US$5.86 billion maturing between April 1, 2000 and March 31, 2002.
In other developments: The World Bank says it will support Indonesia if the country calls for the faster disbursement of committed loans and grants tied with reform programs set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a report said on Tuesday.
A World Bank senior advisor, K Sarwar Lateef, told the newspaper Kompas the government has not discussed that matter with the World Bank.
Chief economics minister Ramli said recently Indonesia still had unutilized loans totaling $17 billion for which the country has continued to pay commitment fee. Rizal said the cash-strapped government will seek to speed up the disbursement of the loan to finance its program.
The statement by Rizal came after the government failed to persuade the IMF to disburse its loan tranche of $400 million delayed since last December. Observers have said that the government might be in trouble even to pay the salaries of the civil servants if the IMF would continue to delay the disbursement.
Lateef said by the end of February unutilized aid from the World Bank for Indonesia totaled $2.2 billion. The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) will accelerate sales of the Rp16 trillion ($1.6 billion) worth of assets under its control. The assets were owned by 90 companies with debts to the agency, the Financial Sector Policy Committee (KKSK) said.
KKSK, which is headed by chief economics minister Rizal Ramli, said the assets will be sold through an open tender and payment could be made in cash or bonds.
The statement said among the debtors are a number of subsidiaries of the Humpus Group with debt totaling $89 million to IBRA. The Humpuss Group, owned by Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of former President Suharto and now a law fugitive, will pay partly in cash and party through asset settlement.
Indonesia's oil and non-oil exports reached only $4.37 billion in February 2001, a 2.42 percent drop compared to the previous month, due to a decline of 16.75 percent in oil/gas exports.
The Central Bureau of Statistics [BPS] reported on Monday that since September 2000, the country's total exports had continued to decline from more than $5 billion to $4.85 billion in January 2001, and $4.73 billion in February 2001. The decline in the February 2001 exports was the result of the sharp drop in oil/gas exports by 16.75 percent to $1.12 billion, especially due to the 33.76 percent drop in gas exports. During the same period, non oil/gas exports increased by 3.06 percent to $3.61 billion.
Meanwhile, the country's imports in February dipped 0.18 percent to $3.03 billion. Oil/gas imports reached $251.2 million, or up by 6.85 percent, while non-oil/gas imports reached $2.77 billion, or down by 0.77 percent. In the January-February 2001 period, imports reached $6.06 billion.