Foreign officials invited to witness elections

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

The Jakarta Post

 INDONESIA: Fifty senior officials from 25 Asian countries have been invited to witness Indonesia's second direct presidential election on Wednesday.

 The Foreign Ministry said Monday the foreign officials were currently participating in Indonesia Election Visitor Program from July 6 to 9. The program, organized by the ministry in cooperation with the Institute for Peace and Democracy, was opened by Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda on Monday.

"The program is designed to enable us to discuss, share our knowledge and work together, using the Indonesian presidential election as a case study," the minister told the participants.

 "This does not mean that the Indonesian presidential election is a perfect case. Nor does it mean that we want to impose the Indonesian case for you to emulate," he added.

 The fifty invitees will be divided into groups which will observe the elections in six cities, Tangerang, Yogyakarta, Malang, Denpasar, Ujung Pandang and Banyu Asin.

  By country of origin, investors from The Netherlands invested the most at $1.1 billion, followed by Singapore with $793 million, and South Korea with $471 million.

 Domestic investment more than doubled to $1.9 billion compared to the same period last year.  The figure for domestic investment projects also increased to 134 projects from 107 projects in the same period last year. Lutfi said further that  the five top domestic investment sectors included chemicals, food and beverages, textiles, mining, and plantations.

 The contribution of actual domestic investment was 26.8 percent of the total investment secured in the first semester of  2009, increasing 8 percent  compared to the same semester last year.