Welcoming Remarks
by Mr. Kiyohiro Araki,
Senior State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Your Excellency, Mr. Rizal Ramli, Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry,
Honorable Ministers of Indonesia,
Mr. Chairman,
Representatives of donor Countries and international organizations,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure that the Consultative Group Meeting for Indonesia is held here in
Tokyo vath the participation of representatives from Indonesia and its partner countries
and international organizations. On behalf of the Government of Japan, I would like to
express my cordial welcome to all of you here today and say a few words at the opening of
this meeting.
It has almost been one year since the administration of His Excellency Abdurrahman Wahid
was formed through a democratic process last October. For the year, the administration has
vigorously dealt with challenges such as economic structural reforms and internal security
issues.
In the area of economy, the administration is steadily implementing the economic program
it agreed with the IMF, and Indonesia's economic outlook has improved. Thus, the various
efforts by the administration are producing some outcomes.
I hope that Indonesia, while facing various challenges, will make further progress in
these reforms.
Following the meeting held this February in Jakarta, this meeting is the second
Consultative Group Meeting since the inauguration of the Wahid administration. From the
onset of the economic crisis in 1997 up to the previous meeting, the main issue was the
assistance to overcome the crisis, that is, assistance to short-term financial gap
filling. At this meeting, however it must be important to discuss substantially how to
assist Indonesia from the mid- and long-term perspective, in addition to the action for
the short-term challenges as taken in the past, in order for Indonesia to tackle the
development issues such as poverty reduction and good governance, as well as to achieve
sustainable economic growth. I hope that there will be active discussion among the
participants and concrete results will be obtained.
Last but not least, in closing my remarks, I would like to express my sincere hope that
the partnership between Indonesia and donor countries and international organizations will
be further strengthened through this meeting.
I thank you very much.
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