Cabinet Secretary Receives USABC Delegation

Cabinet Secretary receives USABC Delegation led by Senior Vice President & Regional Managing Director for the USABC, Michael Walter Michalak, at Cabinet Secretary’s Meeting Room, Jakarta, on Thursday (27/4) (Photo: PR/Agung)

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung received US ASEAN Business Council Delegation led by Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the US-ASEAN Business Council, Michaeal Walter Michalak, at Cabinet Secretary’s Meeting Room, Jakarta, Thursday (27/4) afternoon.

The delegation comprising of representatives of US big companies, among others: Qualcomm, AT&T, AIG, VISA, Pay Pal, Master Card, Cisco Systems, Nike, Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Uber, UPS, and Microsoft, as well as representatives from PT HM Sampoerna.

USABC is a US cooperation organization with ASEAN member countries on government, sustainable development, cyber security, education, English training, disaster management, human rights, nuclear non-proliferation, and maritime security sectors.

These representatives gave their inputs over theirbusiness processes in Indonesia, including the regulations that hamper their investment. In addition, the meeting also discussed digital economy and all the problems.

At the beginning of the meeting, Cabinet Secretary said that he wanted to directly hear the problems faced by these companies. “I want to hear the problems that you have to face in Indonesia and I promise I will directly send letters to related Ministries/Ministers to report those problems, of course on behalf of President Joko Widodo,” Pramono said.

Pramono further explained that Indonesia is really open because President Joko Widodo Administration has set two important aspects, i.e. openness and competitiveness. “If there are problems, please tell them to the Government, to the President, and send the copies to me because now Indonesia tries to improve its Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rank,” Pramono said while adding that one way to improve it is by receiving inputs from business people.

Regarding regulatory reform, Cabinet Secretary said that there are a lot of rules and regulations that need to be amended so the process takes time. However, a Working Group (Pokja) has been established to do this work. The Working Group, led by Coordinating Minister for the Economy, is still working on it. “To improve EoDB’s rank, one of the breakthroughs carried out by the Government is establishing a Working Group to amend the regulations,” Mas Pram, Pramono Anung’s nickname, said.

Also accompanying Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung on that meeting were Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Politics, Law, and Security Fadlansyah Lubis, Expert Staff for Legal Affairs and International Relations Thanon Aria Dewangga, and Head of Division of Trade and Business Competition Bambang Poernowo. (DNA/AGG/ES)(MMB/YM/Naster)