Honourable Chairman,
Distinguished Members of the Delegation,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

        Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
        Praise be to God,

        First of all, let us thank God the Almighty for His blessings and gifts which have enabled us to attend the ninth meeting of the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI), the first one convened in Jakarta. On this occasion, I wish to express a warm welcome to all members of the delegation. I hope that all of you will be able to make use of your time while in Indonesia to see as much as possible and witness directly how the Indonesian people are hailing a better life in the future.

        It is my hope that from your meetings with our government and our people, you will be able to feel there being new and more promising situations after the Indonesian people succeeded in going through the initial stages of the transition towards a democratic and more open system of -government. You will be able to see for yourselves the conditions of the life of the people who feel more and more confident in the presence of the nuances of a new life, in which the economic and social justice is not geared for the interest of a small group of people, but, rather, for the interest of the people at large.

        On those grounds, on this happy occasion allow me to convey my highest appreciation to the Governments and International Institutions which you represent for their willingness to assist us to ensure that the transitional period which our country is going through will proceed well. In addition, I also highly appreciate the assistance in the form of funds which have been hitherto provided, particularly the funds during the last two years, which have been badly needed for the endeavour to help the needy who have suffered from the ill effects of the economic and political crises, both of which have shattered the life of the majority of the Indonesian people.

        These last two weeks have constituted decisive moments for the Government in the context of building the foundations for better economy. On the 20th of January, the Government submitted a Draft State Budget to the House of the People's Representative, the Parliament, and signed a Letter of Intent with the International Monetary Fund. The two documents were the results of the almost three months' hard work by the Ministers in charge of economic affairs, the objective being to ensure that the economic programs developed will be in line with the mandate stated in our State Policy Guidelines. In this regard, it is my fervent hope that we can forge cooperation with you to the effect that all of the programs will proceed to the good.

        With regard to the aforementioned programs, I wish to explicate some views and lines of thinking which form their backgrounds. In building up our economy, our aspiration is that the economic growth resulting from it will have a more concrete meaning in the sense that it can be equitably enjoyed. The economic growth should be able to enhance the quality of living of all of the Indonesian people. It shall not be enjoyed by only a small number of the people. For that purpose, we will pay more attention to development programs which will create job opportunities for the people at large; by the same token, we will enhance the utilisation of our natural resources, including our marine resources, which are still abundant. The programs in these areas will be combined with the social safety net programs which are designed with a view to allowing the unfortunate members of the society, who have hitherto enjoyed the least direct results of the economic development, to be lifted from the more acute difficulties and to enjoy the direct yields of economic progress.

        We are fully aware that the economic crisis which has caused a great deal of damage to the Indonesian people is not due to the impact of the globalisation process; it was due to our own weaknesses. Internally, the economic crisis which befell us occurred mainly because there was a group of the members of the community who made use of the weaknesses of the regulations and of the company management ethics, besides the weaknesses in the banking supervision. Additionally, the eventuality of the economic crisis cannot be severed from the last regime's policies of according opportunities and protection to certain groups.

        Our understanding that we live among interdependent members of the world community also underpins the development of policies and of programs in line with that understanding. We will continue to direct a globally oriented economic development in accordance with the advancement of technology as well as with the enhancement of our abilities and competitiveness based upon our comparative advantages. The Government will continue to provide an impetus for economic growth through the market mechanism, whereby the Government will ensure that sound competition will take place in all sectors of the economic life.

        Indonesia's success in achieving the objectives of the economic development, in reinforcing democracy and maintaining the unity of the state, will very much depend upon the success of our endeavours to bring into being the social justice for the people, as was mandated in the Preamble to our Constitution. We are aware that in the past, for a long period of time, power and decision-making mechanism was, more often than not, abused to satisfy the interest of a smaller number of people. This resulted in there being a political process which tended to benefit the small group. Economic opportunities were made advantage of by rich members of the community who were already strong, whereas basic human rights were more and more disregarded and unprotected, and corruption, collusion and nepotism (CCN) became more and more rampant, the impacts of which were negative to the daily living of the Indonesian people.

        Bringing justice into being for the community is indeed no easy job. It is very complex and time-consuming. To reduce the complexity, reforms in all fields are imperative, and in this regard we have started taking the requisite steps. One of the important initiatives is to make amendments to the Constitution which encompass areas deemed necessary. The objective is to ensure that openness and transparency prevail in the running of the government as well as to make the Government's accountability clearer to the people.

        However, we also realize that those important steps will be meaningless if the people cannot be made convinced that such amendments are indeed necessary and that they will be carried out in a correct fashion. For that purpose, we will collaborate with the people from all strata of the community as our responsibility to the next generation of ours until a life with social justice comes into being, of which they can be proud. Along with the House of the People's Representatives, the Government is developing and will develop various new regulations of the legislation which will be able to give protection and the feelings of justice to the people at large. The Government will re-educate judges, public prosecutors, the police with a view to enabling them to better ensure the enforcement of the law for people from all walks of life. The Government will also continue reinforcing the foundation for the mass media development and incorporating the initiatives taken by the community to make them better able to play the role of giving early warnings against the possibility of deviations in the future. We also support the endeavours of the House of the People's Representatives to develop its legislative abilities as well as in the context of executing its duties in controlling the execution of the laws. Reforms are also being carried out and will continue to be made as regards the Government apparatuses with a view to enabling them to render the best services to the society.

        The renovative measures which I have mentioned constitute very important duties in our endeavour to accelerate the economic recovery. We know that capital investors will come to Indonesia if and when they know that there is a guarantee of legal certainty. We need to convince investors that the guarantee of legal certainty exists which will protect their contracts and that methods of settling disputes in a just fashion prevail should disputes arise. All, including companies and individuals in general, must be protected by law from the possibility of irresponsible acts. We wish every person to know with certainty that they have the rights to a just settlement for any problem posing them, either in relation to the civil law or in relation to the Government. Every person is entitled to knowing that the judiciary system will protect their rights, protect the rights to decent living, irrespective of their origin, language or religion.

        Needless to say, it is on our own very shoulders that main responsibilities for executing those important duties are borne. However, we also know that our abilities at this juncture are limited. We need the assistance, moral support and funds from the countries and institutions which you represent in the CGI forum. I hope that, through the discussions in the CGI sessions to be started today, you will pay attention to the programs of ours. With such wide-ranging needs and with the various activities to be undertaken, we need a helping hand of those who can forge a close cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and Non-government Organisations. All of these are needed by us to enable the Government to effect permanent and sustainable changes towards the realisation of social justice, not merely for the sake of solving the problems with the interest of certain donors. That is why, the Government has asked the World Bank to coordinate the various comprehensive programs.

        Another area which has become a major issue is the issue of environment and the protection of natural resources. For a fairly long period of time, the richness of the natural resources has been victimised for the sake of the interest of a few members of the community. Last week the Government held a meeting with a view to developing ideas and programs in forestry in a coordinated manner. Officials from the Department of Forestry and Plantations gave exposes on forest-related problems in order to elicit the responses and support needed.

        People have placed high hopes with the new Government. They hope for the future's guarantee and better environment; they hope to be able to stand up immediately from the great fall they have suffered to date. They also hope that the Government will accommodate and listen to the complaints and aspirations which have been disregarded for decades. To satisfy the hopes, it will take, needless to say, a long time.

        We can understand the high hopes that people have, especially after their experiencing the extraordinary difficulty resulting from the economic crisis and, secondly, from the political crisis, which lasted two and a half years. With your help, the preceding Government was able to prevent the total destruction of the Indonesian economy from occurring,, it was also able to check the economic crisis. We wish to express our appreciation and gratitude for their endeavours. However, besides the success which they made, they also experienced difficulties owing to the strong links with the policies of the former preceding government, which had produced various inconsistencies in economic policies. Their links with the past caused them to be unable to solve various social problems which had arisen for over thirty years. Now, all of those problems very much depend on the new government to solve.

        I will not mention those economic problems any further because you will be able to discuss them in the sessions of this meeting. Now I wish to explicate some matters related to the Government's efforts to solve a number of social and political problems which, as a matter of fact, we inherited from the previous governments. Various problems such as those as regards the demand for independence by Aceh, lrian Jaya, and other provinces as well as those related to intergroup conflicts have brought about, albeit gradually, hatred and are threatening the unity and unification of the Indonesian state and nation.

        All of those issues have involved President Abdurrahman Wahid and myself to actively try to solve them. At the end of last year, the President made a visit to lrian jaya to have a dialogue with the local people on what can be done by the central government regarding their problems and needs. Recently, the President made a visit to Aceh to show that the Government does not disregard the development in Aceh and that it always pays attention to the aspirations of the Aceh people. At the same time, I visited the Mollucas in order to identify, together with the -local people, the accurate methods for re-uniting the peoples who are conflicting. It is my conviction that all of those problems can, little by little, be solved and that they will be able to revert to tranquil life.

        I find it necessary to mention to you that the problems posing the Indonesian people these days are indeed highly complex and that they cannot be solved immediately. Nevertheless, the Government continues to strongly attempt to maintain the unity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. It does not mean that in the future there will be no changes in the relations between the central government and the regional government. Even at this time the central government has actively started implementing the decentralisation policy in the areas of finance and administration, which will eventually give power to regional government to manage their financial resources.

        Decentralisation is no new issue for us, and the Indonesian Government is not the first to try to implement this system. However, we will continue to see and learn more from the experience of other countries which have enjoyed the advantages of having executed the decentralisation system. By the same token, we will adjust the implementation with the political and social conditions in Indonesia. We are aware that the decentralisation of authority in the area of finance and of other resources is not an easy matter in the management of the state budget. On these grounds, the Indonesian Government hopes for the support of the international community by providing assistance for us to satisfy the need in the budget; at the same time the Government also has the problem of the burden of paying interests in the context of executing the banking restructuring program.
 

        Ladies and Gentlemen,

        In the area of international relations, we will attempt to play a positive role in solving regional and global issues. One of these is how to re-build the Indonesia-East Timor relations. We are neighbours and live on the same island. The meeting of President Abdurrahman Wahid, President of the CNRT and the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General some time ago can be construed as an initial important step in the context of building a new relation between the peoples of the two countries.

        We will also cooperate reciprocally with the UN Transitional Government in East Timor, in particular in the endeavour to solve the problem of the status of the refugees in the western part of Timor, which is part and parcel of the Indonesian territory, as well as the refugees in other provinces of Indonesia. We will continue to sustain the process of determining the status of the East Timorese people who are still in the Indonesian territory; they should be able to choose freely whether to return to East Timor or whether to remain to be citizens of Indonesia. Another issue to be paid attention to in the Indonesia-East Timor relations is the boundary between the two countries. We are trying to reach an agreement on how to determine the boundaries between the two boundaries, either the land boundary or the sea boundary. In addition, we should also pay attention to cross-boundary merchants, either from Indonesia or from East Timor, to enable them to continue trading and travelling without any hurdle so that the inter-community relations on the Island of Timor remain sustainable. We have also started the process of solving the remaining problems in economy such as the state assets, the government debts, pensions, and other problems related to the savings of the East Timorese people.
 

        Ladies and Gentlemen,

        My hope is that my explication of the major problems which I mentioned earlier can provide you with a clearer picture of the direction of the policies which the Government is developing and will develop. To conclude, I would like to iterate my highest appreciation for your presence here and for your readiness to continue assisting the Indonesian Government and people in building better Indonesia, which is imbued with justice and which gives the same treatment and opportunities to each and every citizen. If we succeed in achieving our objectives, the sacrifices which our people have made for the last two and a half years will certainly not be in vain,

        Thank you.

        Wassalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.