Foreign Investment-Negative List

After a long waited and discussion, the Government of Indonesia has finally issued the new negative list through Presidential Decree No. 36 Year 2010 Regarding Business Sector that are Closed for Investment and Opened for Investment Under Certain Conditions (“Perpres 36/10”). Perpres 36/10 revoked the previous negative list regulation number 77 of 2007 as amended by Presidential Decree No. 111 of 2007. Under Perpres 36/10, all lines of business are principally opened for foreign investment except for those lines of business that are listed in this new negative list. However, it is advisable for the investor to consult to Indonesian Investment Coordination Board (“BKPM”) if they find their line of business is not listed in this regulation. BKPM and other related government institutions will further decide whether that line of business are opened or closed for foreign investment. In addition, other related regulation may affect to the determination whether certain business sectors are opened or closed for foreign investment. In this case, policy from BKPM is still play a part.

Summary of the New Negative List

The Perpres 36/10 have 12 articles contained of 5 new articles and 7 articles which have the same content with the previous one. The Perpres 36/10 contained 40 business sectors that are more open to the foreign investors and 10 business sectors that are more restrictive. The new negative list is expectedly to attract more investors as the provisions stipulated is considerably liberalization toward some strategic sectors among others in forestry, energy and mineral resources, health services, manpower, information technology, telecommunication, culture and tourism, as well as marine and fishery. Culture and tourism are among the toppest business sectors that are more opened for foreign investor.

Business expansion : The investor is not obliged to establish a new legal entity or to obtain new license for expanding its business in the same field but in the different location. All they need is to fulfill the location requirement unless otherwise stipulated by the laws. This policy would expectedly to provide flexibility for the investor in expanding their business.

In the event that the foreign investor intends to expand its business within the same business line and the expansion needs additional capital through rights issue, and the local investor can not participate in its expansion scheme, then pre-emptive rights[1] applicable for foreign investor. In the event that the share ownership for foreign investor exceeds the maximum limitation as stated in the approval letter, the foreign investor should adjusted that exceeding within 2 (two) years. The Perpress 36/10 provides certain mechanism on how to adjust the exceeding shareownership as stated on article 6 (six) Paragraph 2 (two). The mechanism are (i) the foreign investor sell the exceeding shares to the local investor (ii) The foreign shareholder sell its exceeding shares through Initial Public Offering (IPO) carried out by the respective company through local capital market or (iii) The respective company which the foreign investor has exceeding his shareownership buys the exceeding shares and threated it as treasury stocks. The treasury stock is further stipulated in Indonesian Company Law No 40/2007.

Applicability of the new negative list to the Public Listed Company: This new negative list is not applicable for indirect investment or portfolio investment that the transaction carried out through local capital market. However, referring to the Director of Deregulation BKPM, Mr, Indra Darmawan, this provision is not applicable for those public listed companies which have foreign controlling shareholder that getting their shares through local capital market. In short, the new negative list will remain applicable for this situation. This policy is actually restatement of the investment law 25/2007 article 2. On its elucidation, the law stated that the investment law is applicable in all sectors in the territority of the Republic of Indonesia which means direct investments, not including indirect investment or portfolio investment.

Change of company ownership : In the event that the capital ownership changed due to merger, acquisition, or consolidation within the investment company engganges in the same line of business, limitation for foreign capital ownership applied as described below:

a. In the case of merger, the limitation of capital ownership for the surviving company is in accordance to the approval letter of its company;

b. In the case of acquisition, the limitation of capital ownership for the acquiring company is in accordance to the approval letter of its company;

c. In the case of consolidation, the limitation of capital ownership for the new company as is the provisions currently applicable for the new company resulted from consolidation in question.

Granfathering clause : Article 8 of Perpres 36/10 stated that this regulation is not applicable for those approved investment in certain business line issued prior to the enactment of Perpress 36/10. However, the provisions will remain applicable if deemed benefited to the investor. This provision is very important for the investor to protect them from uncertainty especially on the regulatory issue that tend to change. It is commonly known that the regulation is tend to change and this is somehow will hamper the investor in getting legal certainty while they’re doing their business in Indonesia. Even the granfathering clause has clearly expressed by the Perpress, some uncertainty still many left. The biggest concern is how far this protection extends, that is negative list is only a Presidential Decree which the level in Indonesian regulation system is under the law (undang-undang). How if the new law (undang-undang) which is higher level then Presidential Decree is issued and conflicting to the negative list. If the law (undang-undang) is applied, the protection againts uncertainty is considerably weak because granfathering clause will only applicable for the same level of regulation or lower. There are still many questions surrounded within granfathering clause other than changing regulation like business expansion, domestic investment company (PMDN), public listed company issue, and etc. Therefore BKPM should anticipated this issue and the policy will continue to play a part.

Asean Economic Community, Amid the pressure to the globalised economy, the new negative list has showed government’s commitment toward ASEAN Economic Community by providing higher foreign percentages in certain sectors for investor from ASEAN countries. In addition, in the even that a business line contained in the Indonesia commitment toward ASEAN Economic Community is not listed in the attachment of the new negative list but listed in other attachment, that the investor from ASEAN countries may invest in accordance to the requirement provided by that attachments.

New Format : A very welcomed change of this new negative list is the format that is now simpler and much easier to understand. The new format covering 17 general business areas composed based on the sectors under the ministry or related government institution. The new negative list has already used the newest Business Clasification (KBLI 2009) as the reference code of business line in Indonesia.

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[1] A privilege extended to select shareholders of a corporation that will give them the right to purchase additional shares in the company before the general public has the opportunity in the event there is a seasoned offering. A preemptive right is written in the contract between the purchaser and the company, but does not function like a put option

Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance: Ten Years from Now

Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance is established in 1999, serves as a regional forum for exchanging experiences and advancing the reform agenda on corporate governance while promoting awareness and use of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance (ARCG) gathers the most prominent, active and influential policy makers, practitioners and experts on corporate governance in the region, from OECD countries and relevant international institutions.

The goal of ARCG is to support decision makers in their efforts to improve corporate governance in the region. This is achieved through informal peer review of corporate governance policy frameworks and practices in the region, benefitting from international experiences. Participants seek to raise awareness of major developments and challenges, evaluate implementation and enforcement as well as discuss and analyze policy options to support viable and effective corporate governance.

Forum for Corporate Governance in Indonesia (FCGI) along with Indonesian Institute for Corporate Directorship and Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Board (Bapepam) attended the prestigious meeting of ARCG in Manila 9-10 September 2009. In commemorating ten years ARCG since it’s established in 1999, the conference took “Asian Roundtable of Corporate Governance: Ten Years from Now” as the meeting topic. The meeting was expectedly became the major turning point for good corporate governance implementation in the next decade. The meeting was a milestone with three key features: First, the meeting is designed to review and evaluate implementation of corporate governance standards and practices as a vital step to reinforcing market integrity. Second, the meeting will launch Guideline on Fighting Abusive related Party Transaction in Asia, an issue that has been much debated. Asian decision-makers collectively developed this Guide through a Task Force formed in 2008. In this meeting, the participants will also discuss on how to implement the guide. Third, the conference also spent some time to reflect on what next decade of corporate governance in Asia may look like, new priorities, obstacles and how OECD can help.

As the conference aimed to review and evaluate implementation of corporate governance within 10 years, there are some significant achievements that have had by ARCG and OECD namely:

a. Broad range of corporate governance reforms in many economics;
b. Globally compatible rules and regulations are introduces such as enhancing transparency and accountability;
c. Most of emerging market economies adopted outside director and audit committee as part of mandatory requirement.
d. Convergence of corporate governance regulations in Asian Economics
e. Improvement quality of corporate governance around Asian Countries.

There also significant role that has been played by ARCG within 10 years to the implementation of Corporate Governance is Asia countries namely:

a. Provide podium to share and exchange experiences and ideas on corporate governance implementations
b. Set current critical agenda for the region
c. Build positive influence across economies through supports as well as through pre assure
d. Share director training knowledge and experiences
e. Build connected cooperation among business, academics and regulators, etc.

In this meeting, OECD launched new corporate governance series of guideline on fighting abusive related party transactions in Asia. This guideline is developed by the Task Force, seeks to provide policy makers, enforcement authorities, private institutions, shareholders and other stakeholders with key recommendations and analysis of core issues. The Guide focusing on publicly listed companies in Asia which may also be useful to technical assistance agencies working on this issue. The recommendations covering legal definition and framework of related party transactions, highlight on several experiences in some countries in Asia regarding related party transactions, board oversight and approval as well as some case studies on how to assess Related Party Transactions.

The last key feature of the conference is to reflect on what next decade of corporate governance in Asia may look like, new priorities, obstacles and how OECD can help. The participants were divided into some groups discussing about what the possibility issues and actions can be taken in the next decade. The result mostly concern on implementation of the OECD standards and guidelines as well as enforcement on the laws and regulations containing corporate governance principles.

Even some achievements have been reached and significant role has been played, some huge homework on implementations and practices of good corporate governance within Asian countries still be a greatest barrier for the next decade. There are still large disparity between practices and regulations. These may happen because of the weakness of enforcement and inactive stakeholders. Therefore, it needs continued effort to strengthen the enforcement capabilities of regulators and involving all stakeholders to support the implementation.

The Role and responsibilities of the board is also reviewed as their value of role and responsibilities needs to be increased. The effectiveness of a board in directing and controlling a company to ensure that all actions are in the interest of shareholders has again been the subject of scrutiny. In particular, their failure on the ability to provide effective stewardship and to ensure risk management is allegedly related to the current global financial crisis.

To empowering shareholders with the ability and willingness to take governance factors into account when making their investment decisions and to actively participate at general meetings and make their voices heard is key to keeping management and board vigilant and ensuring that they act in the interest of shareholder. This also being the focus of the corporate governance in the next decade.

In the last session of the meeting, Mr. John Lim, the Chair of Asia State Owned presented an updated on the Roundtable Meeting of Asia State Owned Enterprises. The last Asian Roundtable on SOEs was held in Bangkok 20-21 May 2009. The SOEs Roundtable has developed guideline of corporate governance in SOEs and developed some important comparative publications on key issues such as “Enforcement of Corporate Governance in Asia: Unfinished Agenda” and also “Asia: Overview of Corporate Governance Frameworks in 2007”.

Minaret Bans in Switzerland

Islamophobia is no doubt intensively rising up in Europe particularly with regard to the recent issue on the banning of Minaret. As the result of the pool taken by Swiss voters, the construction of Minaret within Switzerland will no longer permitted. The proposal of pool is came from the Swiss People Party which are the largest party in parliament. The government, even opposed the result, but hardly accept the decision. This issue will hampering Swiss' Image particularly in moslem world. The reaction come from the official from Turkey that Moslem must also ban all products from Swiss and drawn all their money from Swiss Bank.

This decision is considerably a "phobia" sent to the Moslem community in entire Europe. The biggest problem in this issue is not the ban itself but the message and symbol sent by the voters. Who can deny that this is not a symbol of hatred and fear. Even there are still chances that the pool result will be cancelled by Swiss Supreme Court or European Human Rights Court but the message of hatred and fears has been sent to the world. The moslem community especially who live in Switzerland will feel that they are not accepted. In addition, a peaceful and harmony among the people are disturbed. Switzerland is no longer safe place for moslem to live as unreasonable pool has been taken to ban minaret while there are only four minaret in entire Switzerland. The reason that minaret is the symbol of power and tools for Islamization is truly non-sense.

European countries is recently very focus on Islamic development, not to mentioned they feared on the increasing Moslem population. Most of them are immigrant from Middle East, Asia, Africa and some are genuine European. Let see what happened in Germany that they rejected the plan of moslem community to construct a biggest moslem in Europe or we can see in France that they were very concern on banning headscarf for moslem women in public area. Not to mentioned in other side of the world that moslem were suffered in many ways.

Blessing in disguise may be the answer on what happened in Europe and America. The moslem population is highly increase after September 11. Their curiosity on Islam have dragged many European people to embrace Islam. They voluntarily read about Islam, discuss about Islam and finally open their heart to embrace Islam. It is reported that Islam has been the second largest religion in France and soon will be in entire Europe. Even its not really significant compare with others but this population issue has become a serious debate among politicians, government officials,as well as religious figures . They are debating on how to integrated Moslem with their society.

What have been concerned by Huntington on the class of civilization may have happened. The new phase of modern conflict is all about ideology and of course religious issue. Independence on determining religious choice which refers to human rights is still questioned in this regard not only for Islam but for all religion. We hope that what recently happened in Europe is not really a symbol of hatred but only a dynamic phase of different culture, religion and background. Its hopefully end up with peaceful and harmony while what is happening now is the way to the new equilibrium of harmony among religions

Teks Pidato SBY Menyikapi Bom JW Marriot dan Ritz Carlton, 17 Juli 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX4Rd2lJeLs

Assalamualaikum, Salam Sejahtera bagi kita semua,Bismillahirrahmanirrahim alhamdulillahirabil alamin,

Saudara-saudara, rakyat Indonesia yang saya cintai dimanapun saudara berada. Hari ini adalah titik hitam dalam sejarah kita, terjadi lagi serangan atau pemboman yang dilakukan oleh kaum teroris di Jakarta. Aksi teror ini diperkirakan dilakukan oleh kelompok teroris meskipun belum tentu jaringan terorisme yang kita kenal selama ini terjadi di bumi Indonesia, yang menimbulkan derita dan kesulitan yang dipikul oleh seluruh rakyat Indonesia.

Aksi yang tidak berperi kemanusiaan ini, juga menimbulkan korban jiwa dan luka-luka bagi mereka yang tidak berdosa. Oleh karena itu, dalam kesempatan ini atas nama negara dan pemerintahan dan selaku pribadi, maka bagi para keluarga yang ditinggalkan saya mengucapkan turut berbela sungkawa yang sedalam-dalamnya. Semoga saudara-saudara kita yang menjadi korban, hidup tenang di sisi Tuhan Yang Maha Kuasa.

Saudara-saudara, aksi pemboman yang keji dan tidak berperikemanusiaan ini serta tidak bertanggungjawab ini, terjadi ketika baru saja bangsa Indonesia melakukan pemungutan suara dalam rangka pemilihan Presiden dan Wakil Presiden, dan ketika KPU sedang menghitung hasil pemungutan suara itu. Kejadian ini yang sangat merusak keamanan dan kedamaian di negeri ini, juga terjadi ketika rakyat sungguh menginginkan suasana yang tepat, aman, tenang dan damai, dan justru rakyat ingin agar selesainya pemilu 2009 ini kita semua segera bersatu, membangun kembali negara kita, untuk kepentingan rakyat Indonesia.

Terus terang juga, aksi pemboman ini terjadi ketika rakyat merasa prihatin atas kegaduhan politik di tingkat elit disertai sebagaimana yang saya ikuti setiap hari, ucapan-ucapan yang bernada menghasut dan terus memelihara suhu yang panas dan penuh dengan permusuhan yang itu sesungguhnya bukan menjadi harapan rakyat setelah mereka semua melaksanakan kewajiban demokrasinya beberapa saat yang lalu.

Saudara-saudara saya yakin, hampir semua diantara kita merasa prihatin, berduka, prihatin, dan menangis dalam hati, seperti yang saya rasakan. Memang ada segelintir orang di negeri ini yang sekarang tertawa puas, bersorak dalam hati, disertai nafsu amarah dan keangkara murkaan. Mereka segelintir orang itu tidak memilki rasa kemanusiaan dan tidak perduli dengan kehancuran negara kita, akibat aksi teror ini yang dampaknya luas bagi ekonomi kita iklim usaha kita, kepariwisataan kita, citra kita dimata dunia dan lain-lain lagi.

Saat ini saudara-saudara disamping kita pemerintah menjalankan kegiatan tanggap darurat untuk merawat saudara-saudara kita yang menjadi korban dalam aksi pemboman ini investigasi juga tengah dilakukan. Saya telah menerima laporan awal dari investigasi yang sedang berlangsung ini. Setelah saya menerima laporan awal, saya telah menginstruksikan kepada Polri, Badan Intelejen Negara, dan badan lembaga-lembaga lain terkait untuk melakukan investigasi secara cepat dan menyeluruh serta mengadili pelaku-pelakunya, sesuai dengan ketentuan hukum yang berlaku.

Saya yakin sebagaimana yang dapat kita ungkapkan diwaktu yang lalu, para pelaku dan mereka-mereka yang menggerakkan aksi terorisme ini akan dapat kita tangkap dan akan kita adili secara hukum. Saya juga menginstruksikan kepada para penegak hukum untuk juga mengadili siapa saja yang terlibat dalam aksi terorisme ini, siapapun dia, apapun status dan latar belakang politiknya.

Pagi ini saya mendapat banyak sekali pertanyaan, atau saudara-saudara yang mengingatkan kepada saya. Yang berteori paling tidak mencemaskan, kalau aksi teror ini berkaitan dengan hasil pemilihan Presiden sekarang ini. Saya meresponnya sebagai berikut, bahwa kita tidak boleh main tuding dan main duga begitu saja, semua teori dan spekulasi harus bisa dibuktikan secara hukum. Negara kita adalah negara hukum dan negara demokrasi. Oleh karena itu norma hukum dan norma demokrasi harus betul-betul kita tegakkan. Bila seseorang bisa dibuktikan bersalah secara hukum, baru kita bisa mengatakan yang bersangkutan salah.

Saya harus mengatakan untuk yang pertama kalinya kepada rakyat Indonesia, bahwa dalam rangkaian pemilu legislatif dan pemilihanPresiden dan pemillihan Wakil Presiden tahun 2009 ini memang ada sejumlah intelijen yang dapat dikumpulkan oleh pihak yang berwenang. Sekali lagi ini memang tidak pernah kita buka kepada umum, kepada publik, meskipun kita pantau dan kita ikuti. intelijen yang saya maksud adalah adanya kegiatan kelompok teroris yang berlatih menembak dengan foto saya, foto SBY dijadikan sasaran, dijadikan lisan tembak.

Saya tunjukkan, ada rekaman videonya, ini mereka yang berlatih menembak (sambil menunjukkan foto-foto yang didapat dari badan intelijen). Dua orang menembak pistol. Ini sasarannya, dan ini foto saya dengan perkenaan tembakan di wilayah muka saya, dan banyak lagi. Ini intelijen, ada rekaman videonya, ada rekaman gambarnya, bukan fitnah bukan isu. Saya mendapatkan laporan ini beberapa saat yang lalu.

Masih berkaitan dengan intelijen, diketahui ada rencana untuk melakukan kekerasan dan tindakan melawan hukum berkaitan dengan hasil Pemilu. Adapula rencana untuk pendudukan paksa KPU pada saat nanti hasil pemungutan suara diumumkan. Ada pernyataan akan ada revolusi jika SBY menang, ini intelijen bukan rumah bukan isu, bukan gosip. Ada pernyataan kita bikin Indonesia seperti Iran. Dan yang terakhir ada pernyataan, bagaimanapun juga SBY tidak boleh dan tidak bisa dilantik. Saudara bisa menafsirkan apa arti ancaman seperti itu.

Dan puluhan intelijen lain yang sekarang berada di pihak yang berwenang, tadi pagi terus terang sebagaimana kebiasaan saya, saya ingin langsung datang ke lokasi. Tapi, Kapolri dan semua pihak menyarankan jangan dulu, karena memang belum steril, masih dibersihkan, masih disisir dan ancaman setiap saat bisa datang, apalagi dengan contoh yang saya sampaikan tadi, ancaman fisik. Tetapi tentu hidup dan mati tentu di tangan Allah SWT, tidak boleh terhalang untuk menjalankan tugas saya, untuk rakyat untuk negara ini. Dan karena pengaman Presiden itu berada di pundak TNI saya yakin TNI telah mengambil langkah-langkah seperlunya.

Terhadap semua intelijen itu saudara-saudara, apakah terkait dengan aksi pemboman hari ini atau tidak terkait, saya menginstruksikan kepada semua jajaran penegak hukum untuk menjalankan tugasnya dengan benar, obyektif tegas dan dapat dipertanggungjawabkan, dapat dipertanggungjawabkan secara hukum. Andaikata tidak terkait ancaman-ancaman yang tadi itu, dengan aksi pemboman hari ini, tetaplah harus dicegah, harus dihentikan, karena anarki, tindakan kekerasan, pengrusakan, tindakan melawan hukum bukan karakter demokrasi, bukan karakter negara hukum. Sangat jelas, atas semuanya ini, saya selaku kepala negara dan kepala pemerintahan, mengutuk keras aksi teror yang keji ini, saya juga sangat-sangat prihatin dengan kejadian ini.

Barangkali atau biasanya dalam keadaan seperti ini, banyak diantara kita yang kurang berani menyampaikan kecaman dan kutukannya, barangkali karena pertimbangan politik. Saya dengan bahasa terang harus menyampaikan seperti itu, karena demikian amanah saya sebagai Kepala Negara.
Mengapa saya sangat-sangat prihatin? Pertama, saudara tahu lima tahun terakhir ini ekonomim kita tumbuh dengan baik, dunia usaha, kepariwisataan, swasembada pangan, investasi, perdagangan, sektor riil semua bergerak, meskipun kita menghadapi krisis-krisis global yang datang silih berganti. Yang kedua satu minggu terakhir ini saja, nilai saham kita menguat tajam, nilai tukar rupiah juga menguat. Dengan ekonomi yang terus tumbuh, kesejahteraan rakyat kita sesungguhnya secara bertahap terus juga meningkat, termasuk dapat dilaksanakannya program-program penanggulangan kemiskinan, program-program pengurangan pengangguran atau yang sering saya sebut dengan program pro rakyat.

Semua itu terjadi saudara-saudara, karena tahun-tahun terakhir ini negara kita benar-benar aman dan damai. Sehingga disamping ekonomi tumbuh, rakyat kita diseluruh pelosok Tanah Air, bisa bekerja, bisa menjalani kehidupan sehari-harinya dengan tenang, bebas dari rasa ketakutan. Sementara itu citra kita di mata dunia tahun-tahun terakhir ini juga makin meningkat, karena dunia menilai negara kita makin aman, tertib dan damai. Negara kita memiliki kehidupan demokrasi yang makin mekar, serta penghormatan kepada Hak Azasi Manusia yang makin baik, negara yang ekonominya juga tumbuh, dan negara yang berperan dalam percaturan global. Bahkan, ini yang sangat memilukan, sebenarnya kalau tidak ada kejadian ini, klub Sepak bola terkenal di dunia, Manchaster United, berencana untuk bermain di Jakarta.

Saudara-saudara dengan aksi-aksi teror yang keji dan tidak bertanggungjawab ini, apa yang kita bangun hampir lima tahun terakhir ini, oleh kerja keras dan tetesan keringat seluruh rakyat Indonesia, lagi-lagi harus mengalami goncangan dan kemunduran. Lagi-lagi dampak buruknya harus dipikul oleh seluruh rakyat Indonesia, minus mereka-mereka yang melakukan tindakan yang tidak bertanggungjawab itu.

Oleh karena itu, kebenaran dan keadilan, serta tegakknya hukum harus diwujudkan. Saya bersumpah, demi rakyat Indonesia yang sangat saya cintai, negara dan pemerintah akan melaksanakan tindakan yang tegas, tepat, dan benar terhadap pelaku pemboman ini, berikut otak dan penggeraknya ataupun kejahatan-kejahatan lain yang mungkin atau dapat terjadi di negeri kita sekarang ini.
Kepada Polri, TNI, BIN, termasuk para Gubernur, Bupati dan Walikota, saya minta untuk terus meningkatkan kewaspadaan, terus berusaha keras mencegah aksi-aksi teror. Dan kemudian yang lebih penting lagi, para penegak hukum harus betul-betul mencari, menangkap dan mengadili para pelaku, para penggerak, dan otak dibelakang kekerasan ini.

Barangkali ada diantara kita, yang diwaktu yang lalu melakukan kejahatan, membunuh, menghilangkan orang barangkali, dan para pelaku itu barangkali masih lolos dari jeratan hukum, kali ini negara tidak boleh membiarkan mereka menjadi drakula dan penyebar maut di negeri kita. Saya tahu selama lima tahun ini pihak kepolisian telah berkali-kali mencegah dan menggagalkan aksi terorisme. Telah bisa menyita bahan peledak yang siap diledakkan, sudah bisa membongkar beberapa jaringan, meskipun lolos hari ini, terjadilah musibah yang sangat merobek keamanan dan nama baik bangsa dan negara kita.

Agar tugas untuk mencegah dan memberantas terorisme ini serta kejahatan-kejahatan yang lain dapat dilaksanakan dengan baik, intelijen harus benar-benar tajam. Pencegahan harus benar-benar efektif. Polri, BIN, TNI harus benar-benar bersinergi sikap lengah dan menganggap ringan sesuatu harus dibuang jauh-jauh. Ini amanah kita kepada rakyat, kepada negara.

Kepada rakyat Indonesia seraya juga meningkatkan kewaspadaan tetaplah menjalankan provesi dan kehidupan saudara secara normal. Jika ada keganjilan, segera beritahu Polri. Jangan biarkan kaum teroris beserta otaknya berkeliaran di sekeliling saudara. Saudarapun bisa menjadi korban setiap saat manakala kaum teroris itu dibiarkan merancang lagi aksi-aksi terornya di negeri kita ini. Selanjutnya kedepan, saya mengajak seluruh rakyat Indonesia, seluruh komponen bangsa, untuk marilah kita lebih bersatu dan menjaga keamanan dan perdamaian di negeri ini.

Bangsa manapun, agama apapun, kita semua tidak membenarkan terorisme, apapun motif dan alasannya. Jangan ragu-ragu, jangan setengah hati, dan jangan takut, untuk mencegah dan memberantas terorisme. Sementara itu aksi teror yang terjadi hari ini jangan pula menghalangi semangat dan upaya kita untuk membangun dan memajukan negara kita ini. Kita terus berjuang dan membikin lebih baik, demokrasi dan penghormatan HAM lebih baik, penegakan hukum, pembangunan daerah, peningkatan kesejahteraan rakyat dan sebagainya.

Memang ada kerusakan akibat aksi terorisme hari ini, mari bersama-sama kita perbaiki dan kemudian mari kita terus bangkit dan maju kembali. Kita bangsa, negara, rakyat tidak boleh kalah dan menyerah kepada terorisme. Tidak boleh membiarkan kekerasan, ektrimitas dan kejahatan-kejahatan lain, terus tumbuh di negeri ini. Tuhan Yang Maha Kuasa, Allah SWT akan melindungi kehidupan bangsa Indonesia. Dan dengan memohon ridha Allah, SWT saya sampaikan kepada rakyat Indonesia, saya akan terus berada di depan, untuk menghadapi ancaman dan tangangan ini, serta untuk mengemban tugas yang berat namun mulia ini.

Demikian pernyataan saya, terimakasih, Wassalamualaikum Wr Wb.

Indonesian Economic Outlook 2009-2010

European Joint Luncheon Meeting with Mrs Sri Mulyani: Indonesia economic condition remains strong and solid after the presidential election.

Mrs. Sri Mulyani, The Interim Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Finance said that Indonesia economic condition remain strong in 2009 and easier in 2010 after the presidential election. The economic and monetary reform will continue and the government had done both fiscal and monetary policies to cover economic turbulent during global financial crisis. Fiscal policy stimulus includes; provide stimulus to company in form of tax incentive (lower tax rate, minimum threshold, tax on employee), expand infrastructure, and continue bureaucracy reform on Ministry of Finance, tax, custom, budget and treasury, and for the monetary stimulus the government had lower interest rate. Bureaucracy reform policy and decline tax rate is two major things that the government already done and it will continue after the presidential election.

Indonesia’s resilience to global crisis is better than other countries. Many business markets are still potential for investors. Business sector for agriculture keep stable, transportation and communication sector increase to 16,7 % from total GDP on 2009, despite the decrease of manufacture and trade and suffered from the export decline causing lower exports contribution. However this is can be explained that financial crisis hit most countries in the world. The Indonesian economic growth expectedly to reach 4-4,5 % in 2009, and after the consolidation time in 2010, optimistically, the Indonesian economic growth will accelerate supported by increasing of trading activities.

In the sideline of her speech, she offends her nomination to be the Governor of Bank Indonesia. It is confirmed by the state secretary that she will be nominated as the Governor of Bank Indonesia replacing Boediono who resigned to partner with the incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his re-election bid. Amid the controversy of her nomination, she convinced that the reform will continue whoever will chair the Department of Finance. It is concerned that if two prominent reformist of the Department of finance moved to the Bank Indonesia, the institution reform in its department will halted. Darmin nasution, her partner for finance department reform has already moved to Bank Indonesia to replace Miranda Goeltom, the current BI senior deputy governor. Darmin is set to take office next month after Miranda’s term expires.

One-two Tier System of Governance

Author: Jože Bajuk
joze.bajuk@socius.si
http://www.socius.si/si/knjiznica/

The key novelty of the amendment to the Companies Act is its introduction of the opportunity to choose between the two-tier and one-tier systems for governing domestic public limited companies. This is indeed a true novelty since the existing legislation does not allow this choice. The key novelty brought by the amendment to the Companies Act[1] is clearly the introduction of the opportunity to choose between the two-tier and one-tier systems of governing domestic public limited companies. This is indeed a true novelty since the existing legislation does not allow such a choice, although in limited cases the law allows governance of public limited companies without supervisory boards, which should not be understood as the one-tier governance system known in _domestic_ Anglo-Saxon legal systems.

The System of Governing Public Limited Companies

In both theory and practice, two opposite governance systems have been created, the Anglo-Saxon one-tier[2] and the continental European two-tier[3] systems. Between these two, other governance systems may be classified, in fact taking individual solutions from both and therefore occupying the space between them.
There are three bodies for governing public limited companies in the two-tier system. Namely, the general meeting of shareholders, the supervisory board and the management board. Their competencies are relatively clearly delimited by the law itself. The general meeting of shareholders is primarily competent to adopt changes to the status of the company, profit-sharing and the appointment/dismissal of supervisory board members.

The supervisory board primarily supervises the operation of the management board, appoints/dismisses the management board, takes care
of the motivation of the management board and adopts annual reports. The management board conducts the company's business operations. The law also strictly restricts the option to transfer the authorities of one body to another body. Examples of such a transfer are the transfer of decision-making on the annual report from the supervisory board to the general meeting of shareholders, the restriction and tying of the adoption of the management board_s business decisions to the approval of the supervisory board etc.

The one-tier system knows two bodies of governance. They are the general meeting of shareholders and the board of directors. In its composition and competencies, the general meeting of shareholders does not differ considerably from the general meeting seen in the two-tier system. Thus, the general meeting also has the authority to appoint the company's directors. There are bigger differences in the board of directors. Its members are directors who the law itself divides into non-executive and executive types.

Theoretically, the competence of managing the company is held by the board of directors as the body of governance, however, it transfers this competence to the executive directors and for itself retains the competence of supervising their work. Here, I have to stress again that the board of directors consists of both executive and non-executive directors. A company may also have executive directors who are not members of the board of directors. It is possible to say that such companies have two types of executive directors who have different competencies, tasks and
responsibilities. Otherwise, the role of the executive directors strongly resembles the roles of management board members in the two-tier system of governance since the executive directors conduct the company's business operations.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Governance Systems
There is no universal answer to the question of which governance system is better. The reason is that corporate governance in the sense of arranging the relations between the shareholders and the boards should not be understood as merely a legal category. We must be aware that different models of governance have been formed in different economic and social systems. The one-tier system has thus been created in the Anglo-Saxon space, characterised by dispersed share structures, an active capital/securities market and, last but not least, a majority voting system[4] where the winner has very concentrated decision-making power etc. A pure two-tier system has developed in the Germanic environment characterized by majority shareholders of companies, powerful participation of the participants (employee participation), a less liquid capital market, a proportionate voting system[5] etc. The question of a better/poorer system has in fact only appeared in recent years when we started to witness serous globalisation trends in the economy. It started with the linking up of companies - multinational entities and continues with the strong tendency of shareholders to follow advanced standards of corporate governance[6]. A logical consequence of these trends and requirements is the search for the most efficient governance system which would
reduce the risk for shareholders, take their interests into account and, finally, enable the optimal level of influence by the relevant participants on the operation of capital companies.

Our advice to shareholders when choosing between one-tier and two-tier systems in the future is as follows. The practice of managing and governing companies has shown through the years that the one-tier system is probably more efficient in cases where the company has a majority or prevailing shareholder. Here, the joining together of the managerial and supervisory bodies may represent a certain advantage as there is no real conflict of interest between the shareholder and the management board. The goals and purposes of such companies are largely defined by the majority shareholder, be it a natural person or a company. The joining of the two bodies thus brings about the more efficient and faster adoption of important decisions.

There is a somewhat different situation in the relations between interests in companies with a dispersed share structure. In these companies the shareholders are unable to articulate the goals of the company as their interests differ and their only common denominator is the expectation of a yield in the forms of dividends and growth in the market price of the shares. In these cases an important role may be played by the supervisory board which is separated from the management board, with its task being, besides implementing, supervising and motivating the management board, to establish the goals and purpose of the company _on behalf of the shareholders_ or at least to constantly search for the common interest of capital owners - shareholders. Because of these positive effects, supervision by the separated body is better in quality and more transparent in these cases, which is in the key interest of the shareholders. As mentioned above, here the separation of the supervision and management bodies may produce certain advantages.

[1] Prepared by an expert team at the Ministry of the Economy.
[2] The case of the British legislation.
[3] The case of the German legislation.
[4]The latter should, of course, be understood as just an example of understanding the general view of society regarding the distribution of powers in the social environments concerned.
[6] This is proven by the many national and transnational codes of corporate governance that have been adopted.

Izin Usaha Tetap

Berdasarkan ketentuan petunjuk teknis penanaman modal asing SK No. 57/SK/2004 Perusahan penanaman modal wajib memiliki Izin Usaha Tetap untuk dapat memulai pelaksanaan kegiatan operasi. Pada awalnya setiap investor asing yang berniat untuk mendirikan perusahaan di Indonesia harus mengajukan permohonan persetujuan pendiriam perusahaan penanaman modal asing (PMA) kepada BKPM. Sehubungan dengan permohonan ini BKPM akan mengeluarkan surat persetujuan penanaman modal kepada investor yang merupakan persetujuan sementara sebelum perusahaan tersebut beroperasi secara permanen di Indonesia. BKPM biasanya memberikan waktu satu sampai dua tahun untuk menyelesaikan project awalnya sebagai persiapan untuk beroperasi tetap di Indonesia. Apabila tidak ada kegiatan yang nyata baik secara fisik maupun administratif selama 3 tahun maka surat persetujuan tersebut dapat dianggap sebagai batal demi hukum.

Apabila perusahaan penanaman modal asing telah siap untuk melakukan operasioanl tetap di Indonesia maka mereka wajib untuk mengajukan IUT. Beberapa persyaratan dokumen yang diperlukan untuk mengurus IUT adalah :

1. Rekaman akta pendirian & perubahan serta pengesahan/persetujuan/tanda penerimaan laporan dari Departemen Hukum dan HAM.
2. Bukti penguasaan/penggunaan tanah atas nama perusahaan :
   -rekaman sertifikat Hak Atas Tanah (HGB atau HGU atau Hak Pakai) atau akta jual beli tanah oleh PPAT, atau
   - rekaman perjanjian sewa-menyewa tanah.
3. Bukti penguasaan/penggunaan gedung/bangunan :
   a. rekaman Izin Mendirikan Bangunan (IMB), atau
   b. rekaman akta jual beli/perjanjian sewa-menyewa gedung/bangunan, atau
   c. bukti sah lainnya.
4. Rekaman NPWP.
5. Rekaman izin Undang-Undang Gangguan (UUG)/HO bagi bidang usaha selain perdagangan dan jasa konsultansi, kecuali yang diwajibkan AMDAL. Rekaman Surat Izin Tempat Usaha (SITU) bagi jasa perdagangan dan jasa konsultansi.
6. Rekaman persetujuan Rencana Pengelolaan Lingkungan (RKL) dan Rencana Pemantauan Lingkungan (RPL) bagi perusahaan yang kegiatan usahanya wajib Analisis Mengenai Dampak Lingkungan (AMDAL) atau Dokumen Upaya Pengelolaan Lingkungan (UKL) dan Upaya Pemantauan Lingkungan (UPL) atau Surat Pernyataan Pengelolaan Lingkungan (SPPL) bagi perusahaan yang kegiatan usahanya tidak wajib AMDAL.
7. Rekaman Surat Persetujuan PMA/PMDN yang dimiliki.
8. Rekaman Izin Usaha Tetap (IUT) yang dimiliki (untuk permohonan IUT perluasan/ Merger/ Alih Status).
9. Surat Kuasa bermaterai cukup, bila penandatangan dan/atau yang mengurus permohonan tidak dilakukan oleh pemohon sendiri.
10. Rekaman LKPM-L1 semester akhir.
11. Persyaratan lain sebagaimana tercantum di dalam Surat Persetujuan dan/atau Daftar Bidang Usaha yang Terbuka Dengan Persyaratan (Peraturan Presiden Nomor 111 Tahun 2007 atau perubahannya).

Surat IUT akan diterbitkan oleh BKPM selambat-lambatnya 7 (tujuh) hari kerja sejak diterimanya permohonan lengkap dan benar. Surat IUT tersebut akan berlaku selama 30 tahun sejak produksi dimulai bagi PMA.

Izin Usaha Tetap/Permanent Establishment

Any investment company should have permanent establishment license (IUT) to started their operation activity in Indonesia. Usually the investment company willing to invest in Indonesia will apply for the approval of BKPM. The first approval given is a tentative approval for the respective company to start their business in Indonesia. The approval letter will null and void if within 3 (three) years for the new project and 2 (two) years for the expand project since the date of approval is issued have no realisation project either in the form of actual activity or administrative or any physical activities.

if the company have ready to start permanent establishment than the company will apply for IUT. To apply for IUT, some required documents are needed namely:

1. Deed of Establishment legalized by Minister of Law and Human Rights and its amendment
2. Copy of Right over the land or land lease agreement
3. Copy of Building License or Building Lease Agreement
4. Copy of Hinder Ordonantie (HO) or License of Disturbance Law
5. Copy of Environmental Anal sis (AMDAL) (if required)
6. Copy of Foreign Capital Investment Approval and its amendments
7. Power of Attorney
8. Specific license or proof for specific business line

The application for IUT submitted to BKPM with 2 (two) copies. The IUT will be issued by BKPM at the latest 7 (seven) days after the complete application submitted. The IUT will valid until 30 years since the production is started

Manpower Law No. 13 Year 2003

ACT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
NUMBER 13 YEAR 2003
CONCERNING
MANPOWER
WITH THE GRACE OF GOD THE ALMIGHTY,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF
INDONESIA,
Considering:
a. That Indonesia’s national development shall be implemented within the framework of building Indonesians as fully-integrated human beings and of building the whole Indonesian society in order to realize
a society in which there shall be welfare, justice and prosperity based on equity both materially and spiritually with the Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution at its foundation.

b. That in the implementation of national development, workers have a very important role and position as actors of development as well as the goal of development itself;

c. That in accordance with the role and position of workers, manpower development is required to enhance the quality of workers as well as their role and participation in national development and in improving protection for workers and their families in respect to human dignity and values;

d. That protection of workers is intended to safeguard the fundamental rights of workers and to secure the implementation of equal opportunity and equal treatment without discrimination on whatever basis in order to realize the welfare of workers/ labourers and their family by continuing to observe the development of progress made by the world of business;

e. That several acts on manpower are considered no longer relevant to the need and demand of manpower development and hence, need to be abolished and/or revoked;

f. That based on the considerations as mentioned under points a, b, c, d and e, it is necessary to establish an Act concerning Manpower.

In view of:
Article 5 Subsection (1), Article 20 Subsection (2), Article 27 Subsection (2), Article 28 and Article 33 Subsection (1) of the 1945 Constitution.
By the joint approval between
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
AND
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
DECIDE:
To stipulate:

ACT CONCERNING MANPOWER AFFAIRS
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
ARTICLE 1
Under this act, the following definitions shall apply:
1. Manpower affairs are referring to every matter that is related to people who are needed or available for a job before, during and after their employment.
2. Manpower is every individual or person who is able to work in order to produce goods and/ or services either to fulfill his or her own needs or to fulfill the needs of the society.

3. A worker/labourer are any person who works and receives wages or other forms of remuneration.

4. An employer is individual, entrepreneur, legal entities, or other entity that employ manpower by paying them wages or other forms of remuneration.
5. An entrepreneur is:
a. An individual, a partnership or a legal entity that operates a self-owned enterprise;
b. An individual, a partnership or a legal entity that independently operates a non-self-owned enterprise;
c. An individual, a partnership or a legal entity located in Indonesia and representing an enterprise as mentioned under point a and point b that is domiciled outside the territory of Indonesia.

6. An enterprise is:
a. Every form of business, which is either a legal entity or not, which is owned by an individual, a partnership or a legal entity that is either privately owned or state owned, which employs workers/ labourers by paying them wages or other forms of remuneration;

b. Social undertakings and other undertakings with officials in charge and which employ people by paying the wages or other forms of remuneration.

7. Manpower planning is the process of making a manpower plan systematically that is used as a basis and reference for formulating the policy, strategy and implementation of a sustainable manpower development program. read more

Investment Law

LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA NUMBER 25 OF 2007 CONCERNING INVESTMENTS BY THE GRACE OF GOD ALMIGHTY PRESIDEN REPUBLIK INDONESIA, THE PRESIDENT OFTHE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Considering:
a. that to realize a just and prosperous society that is based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution
of the State of the Republic of Indonesia, it is necessary to make sustainable national economic development founded on economic democracy in pursuit of the state’s goals;

b. that consistent with the mandate seth forth in Decree of the People’s Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia Number XVI/MPR/1998 concerning Economic Policy in the context of Economic Democracy, investment policies should at all times underlay the people’s economy that commits itself to the enhancement of micro, small and medium enterprises, and cooperatives;

c. that to accelerate national economic development and to realize Indonesian political and economic sovereignty it is necessary to step up investments in order to turn economic potentials into real economic strength by use of funds derived from both home and abroad;

d. that to deal with global economic changes and Indonesia’s participation in diverse international cooperations it is necessary to create investment climate to be conducive, promoting, giving legal certainty, justice and efficiency with due regard to the interest of national economy Read More

Company Law No. 40 Year 2007

LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
NUMBER 40 OF 2007
CONCERNING
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES
BY THE GRACE OF ALMIGHTY GOD
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Consideration :
a. whereas the national economy, which is operated on a basis of economic democracy with principles of community, efficiency, justice, sustainability, environmental awareness, independence and safeguards for balanced progress and national economic unity, needs to supported by firm economic institutions in the context of creating prosperity for society;

b. whereas in the context of increasing developmentof the national economy and at the same time giving a firm basis for the business world in facing the developments in the world economy and progress in science and technology in the coming era of globalisation, the support is needed of an act regulating limited liability companies which can secure the operation of a conducive climate for the business world;

c. whereas limited liability companies as a pillar of national economic development need to be given a legal basis to spur on national development composed mutual enterprises on the basis of the principle of a family spirit;

d. whereas the Limited Liability Companies Act No. 1 of 1995 is viewed as no longer in accordance with legal developments and the needs of society and so needs to be replaced with a new act;

e. whereas given the above in paragraphs a, b, c, and

d, it is necessary to form a Limited Liability

Companies Act.
Bearing in mind: Article 5 paragraph (1), Article 20, and Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. With the Common Assent of

THE HOUSE OF PEOPLE’S REPRESENTATIVES OF THE REPUBLIC OF
INDONESIA

and

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
HAS RESOLVED
to promulgate:

A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES ACT
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1
In this Act, the following terms have the following meanings:
1. “Limited Liability Company” (hereinafter called a “Company”) means a legal entity which constitutes an alliance of capital established pursuant to a contract in order to carry on business activities with an authorised capital all of which is divided into shares and which fulfils the requirements stipulated in this Act and its implementing regulations.

2. “Company Organs” means the General Meeting of Shareholders, the Board of Directors, and Board of Commissioners.

3. “Environmental and Social Responsibility” means a Company’s commitment to taking part in sustainable economic development in order to improve the quality of life and environment, which will be beneficial for the Company itself, the local community and society in general.

4. “General Meeting of Shareholders” (hereinafter called the “GMS”) means the Company Organ which has authority not given to the Board of Directors or Board of Commissioners within limits specified in this Act and/or the articles of association.

5. “Board of Directors” means the Company Organ with full authority and responsibility for the management of the Company in the interests of the Company in accordance with the Company’s purposes and objectives and to represent the Company in and out of court in accordance with the provisions of the articles of association.

6. “Board of Commissioners” means the Company Organ with the task of general and/or specific supervision in accordance with the articles of association and giving advice to the Board of Directors.

7. “Open Company” means a Public Company or a Company which makes an public offering of shares in accordance with the provisions of legislative regulations in the field of capital markets.

8. “Public Company” means a Company which fulfils the criteria of number of shareholders and amount of paid up capital in accordance with the provisions of legislative regulations in the field of capital markets.

9. “Merger” means a legal action taken by one or more Companies to
merge with another existing Company with the result that the assetsand liabilities of the merging Companies pass by operation of law to... Read more here and here

Night Life in Bangkok

It was a pleasure to visit Bangkok last week. A prestigious opportunity for me gathering within around 50 selected delegations from all around Asia countries discussing about corporate governance in State Owned Enterprises. But, let's skip the serious topic since I've provided a report on this here.

What I want to share here is the night life there. In my opinion, truly this is an opinion since my short time stay did not give me a lot information about whole Bangkok city. However I'm lucky to be in the right spot for the night life in Bangkok. I didn't know whether my colleague in purposely picking the hotel near to this place or it just simply a coincidence. I stayed two night in the hotel at Rama IV Road. Just a few block from Rama IV Road, it is Patpong Road. In this place, every night is party. A very right place for certain people who came to Bangkok for its entertainment.

I believe I will have no much time to buy souvenirs for my wife, family and colleagues. As I saw the map that few block from my hotel, Patpong Road, a place for buying some souvenirs is exist. I walk alone heading Patpong Road, and within only five minutes walked, the patpong Road is already in front of me. Once I arrived in the front of the Road, truly I am shocked with the views around me. I don't know whether they are men or women but absolutely they are dressing as women, well actually half dressed. Yes, this is Patpong Road the place that people said as a center of entertainment, a wild night life. There are some seller offering souvenirs, porno DVDs sellers who're seemingly afraid of selling their goods openly and other merchandise sellers. Even this is a very strange place for me but I tried to confidently walk through. My first intention was to buy souvenirs nothing others. For me it is enough to know that this kind of place available in Bangkok. I do think this place mixed between entertainment and prostitution.

In this place, everything illegal in Jakarta were seemingly so free. Can you imagine that a bar or something like that widely open for just sightseeing. They have a round table for the guests, and you know that in the middle of round table there are lot of women, half naked and dancing happily. Because the door is quite big and it is widely open, I can see all the activities there. A striptease parade are shown freely. Naudzubillah. Even maybe, somewhere in Jakarta, this kind of entertainment is also provided, I believe those kind of entertainment were not openly parade like in Bangkok. I think this is no difference with Red District in Holland.

Just a sharing experience, but this is meaningful for me. I don't think that Bangkok is better than Jakarta. I do even think that Jakarta much better. especially on this side, the night life.

The 4th Network on Corporate Governance of State Owned Enterprises

It was a prestigious opportunity for Forum for Corporate Governance in Indonesia (FCGI) to participate as Indonesian delegations in the international forum of 4th Asian Network on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) held in Bangkok 20-21 May 2009 (“Network”). The Network is annually held by Organization of Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD). An international organization established to help governments in tackling economic, social and governance of globalised economy.

The Network gathered around 50 participants, including the most prominent, active and influential policy makers, practitioners and experts regarding corporate governance of SOEs in the region. They constitute a peer of group that can press for legal, regulatory or other type of reform in this field. The Network aims to raise awareness, evaluate the currents policies of Corporate Governance, and support viable and effective reform on the importance and challenges related to the implementation of good corporate governance of SOEs in Asia countries.

To keep the dialogue focused and produces a tangible outcome, the Network has progressively developed a Regional Policy Brief, providing a set of recommendations and priorities for policy reform in order to improve the corporate governance of SOEs in the economic of Asia. The Network has also developed complete guidelines on the implementation of good corporate governance in SOEs notably in Asia. The guidelines are the first international benchmark in corporate governance of SOEs area. The use of the guidelines aims to raise awareness and promote implementation of good corporate governance in this sector.

As both policy brief and guidelines on the implementation of good corporate governments has progressively made, this 4th network focused on the implementation issues, discussing examples of international best practices, and how to implement the recommendations as provided by the policy brief and guidelines. It was also discussed about monitoring mechanism to follow-up implementation of the Policy Brief in the years to come in Asian countries.

During the Network session over the relevancy of the guideline on corporate governance of SOEs in Asia, all delegation has basically agreed with the guidelines and it has been widely accepted by Asian countries. Even some comments arisen, but generally speaking, the problem of guidelines contents are solely technical problem since the countries has different background, culture and system. Even the content of the guidelines has been accepted, In fact, some Asian countries found difficulties to straightly implement the guideline.

From the discussion within the session, the participants identified some common challenges faced in the implementation of corporate governance in SOEs. The major challenge is the state position as an owner of SOEs, somehow, considerably to much involve in the day-to-day management of SOEs. An excessive right of state as an owner causing some serious problem on the focus of corporate governance implementation in SOEs. This causing some dependency in decision making, bureaucracy problem, and lead to the less professional and undefined objectives.

The problem of director selection and nomination process also emerged. Some countries has problem with mechanism and process of getting the right people for this top job. Political interest in certain countries becoming an immense cause for this. Some government still inevitably appoints the SOE directors on their political future prospect as SOEs are a huge hope for political funding within the political process. In certain countries it worsened with the active participation of parliament in deciding the directors of SOEs either formally through the nomination and selection in the parliament so called fit and proper test or politically influence (intimidate-red) the government to choose on political interest-based, in this regard the president or related ministry who has the final right decision to appoint the directors. Other than state ownership and nomination of board directors, the challenges of ensuring implementation of corporate governance guidelines are regulatory reform, equal treatment to all shareholders, stakeholder interest as well as transparency and disclosure.

Some developments in some countries are also shared within the network session. Some countries like Thailand, Taiwan, Philippine, China, Indonesia and Bhutan shared their impressive development in this field i.e. Thailand has successfully develop principle guideline for their country to implement corporate governance in SOEs. Their focus on corporate governance in SOEs managed by State Enterprises Policy Office, structurally established under Minister of Finance. In the future they will make separation between policy, regulatory and operational responsibilities.

Philippine has developed a score card as an evaluation for SOEs performance on corporate governance implementation. They have also established some kind of independent steering committee in the selection and nomination of SOEs’ director. Even the final decision will be prerogatively made by the president but the steering committee will play an important role to select the right man for the right job. This is will also minimize the collusion or nepotism practice within the nomination process. Some countries has successfully setting up centralize ownership entities i.e. the SASAC in china, SCIC in Vietnam and most recently the Druk Holdings in Bhutan. Indonesia is now on the way to develop this ambitious plan to centralized SOEs ownership by establishing SOEs holding company.

Indonesia has progressively adopted the guideline through regulatory reform until ministerial level. Indonesia has also developed regulations which strictly oblige SOEs to compliance with corporate governance. This aims to provide good system and best practices as well as internalized the penetration of good corporate governance culture in SOEs. In providing the guideline for corporate governance implementation Indonesia has made guideline on sectoral based such as good corporate governance for bank, insurance company and other corporation which also applied for SOEs.

Further, after all challenges and development have been shared and some intriguing discussion has been made within the network delegations, it can be concluded that some priorities should be managed to ensure the implementation issues running well. The priorities are in the areas of regulatory reform, ownership by the state, equitable treatment for all shareholders, transparency and disclosure, selection and nomination process for the board as well the responsibility of the boars. Last but not the least, a monitoring mechanism should be developed to ensure that the priorities well implemented

Establishment of Representative Office under Department of Trade

Establishment of representative office enganges in trading activities can be applied in Department of Trade. The foreign trading representative office can be enganges as selling agent, manufactures agent as well as buying agent.

The foreign trading representative office acting as trading agent and/or manufactur agent is allowed to carry out activities as follow:

• to introduce and develop marketing of th goods produced by the father company abroad and to provide information or guidelines for using or importing the goods to the user in Indonesia
• to conduct market research and selling supervisory in Indonesia on behalf of its parent company

The trading representative office and/or manufactur agent is not allowed to conduct any trading and trade transaction, either in the initial level until completion level e.g apply for tender, signing contract, claim settlement etc.

The foreign trading representative office acting as buying agent is allowed to carry out following activities :

• to conduct market reseacrh over the goods needed by parent company and to connect an provides informationas well as guidelines on hiw to export to the national company.
• to close the contract to and on behalf of the parent company in the frame of export.

Requirements to set up this kind of representative office are as follow:

• Letter of appointment made by parent company includes the name of chief of representative office, line business, time frame or validity of its appoinment letter.
• Statement Letter that the chief representative will not conducted any other activities other than related to the representative office activities.
• Letter which describing about the parent company includes the name of the company, date of establishment, legal entity form, address and line business
• Working plan
• Letter of Intent
• Letter of Reference
• Letter Model TA00 from Department of Manpower
• Curriculum Vitae
• Copy of Passport for the proposed Chief of Representative
• To pay deposite as chief of representative in the amount of IDR 5000.000,- for foreigner and IDR 1000.000,- for Indonesian.

The proces to obtain approval from the Ministry of Trade will take approximately one month. Once the approval from BKPM is obtained, some supporting legal document should also arranged. Other supporting legal documents are company registry (TDP) Legal domicile (SKDP) and tax identity number (NPWP). The whole process is estimately accomplished within 2-3 months.

Establishment of Representative Office under BKPM in Indonesia

Many foreign investor at the early stages of investing their capital in Indonesia choose to open their representative in Indonesia. After the business starts they will aplly for foreign direct investment. The establishment of representative office is relatively easier as no need capital requirement nor complex procedure. Establishment of representative can be done dependin on the licenses type and business line needed. The type and business line for representative office in indonesia has been explained on my previuos post here.

Establishment of representative office for the company which has line business other than trade, banking as well as construction is through Indonesian Investment Coordination Board (BKPM). The establishment of representative office under BKPM is governed under its chairmand decree no. 57/2004.

Required documents for the establishment of representative office are as follow:

• Letter of Appointment from the parent company;
• Power of Attorney (if the application represented by proxy);
• Article of Association of the parent company and any amendment (s);
• Copy of valid passport (for foreigner) or copy of identification number (for Indonesia) who will be proposed as a chief of representative office; and
• Letter of Statement concerning the willingness to stay, and only work in the position as the chief of representative office without doing other business in Indonesia.

The approval will takes maximum ithin ten days after all the complete required documents is submitted. Once the approval from BKPM is obtained, some supporting legal document should also arranged. Other supporting legal documents are company registry (TDP) Legal domicile (SKDP) and tax identity number (NPWP). The whole process is estimately accopmplish within 2-3 months.

It is essential to know that representative office activities are limited to as supervisor, connector, coordinator and to arrange company’s interest or affiliated companies in Indonesia and or state outside Indonesia. No commercial transaction is allowed for representative office. specifically, representative office is pohibited to carry out activities as follow :

• Representative office is not allowed to seek revenue from the source in Indonesia including not allowed to carry out activities or to conduct a sale agreement/transaction and to purchase goods and services with company or individual in broad.
• Representative office will not participate in any form of company’s management, subsidiary or company’s branch in Indonesia
• Representative office management should domicile in Indonesia
• Representative office management should fully responsible of all office activities
• Representative office management is able to employ expatriate worker which has certain skill
• Representative office management is not allowed to carry out any activities other than office’s activities
• Representative office management obliges to carry out all prevailing government’s regulations
• Representative office management should submit annual report, not later than 31 January in the next year to the Chairman of Investment Coordination Board using KPPA’s form report

Republik Ironi

Anda mungkin pernah mendengar suatu negara bernama Republik Mimpi, negara tetangga Indonesia. Sebuah negara hasil kreasi insan media televisi swasta nasional yang digadangi oleh salah satu dosen ilmu komunikasi di Universitas Indonesia. Di Negeri ini segala harapan dan cita-cita Indonesia digantungkan. Segalanya di impikan seindah dan sesempurna mungkin. Namanya juga impian, sangat jauh panggang dari api.

Kalau mereka asyik bermimpi tentang indahnya ber-Indonesia, namun hari ini saya, mungkin juga untuk beberapa hari yang berkelanjutan, merasakan betapa Indonesia pada saat ini tak lebih dari sekedar Republik Ironi. Penegakan hukum di Indonesia mewakili begitu besar ironisme berkelanjutan di Republik ini. Saya begitu terhenyak bahkan kaget setengah percaya ketika Kepolisian RI sedikit demi sedikit mulai mengungkap dalang pembunuhan Direktur PT. PRB. Dugaan terlibatnya beberapa nama yang berasal dari kalangan yang begitu dikenal oleh publik semakin menambah ironisme penegakan hukum di negeri ini. Indonesia sudah bak film-film holywood. Begitu banyak intrik, trik dan konspirasi. Nyawa sepertinya sudah tak begitu banyak berarti. Pembunuh bayaran berkeliaran. Bukan sekedar penjahat kelas teri atau kelas ece-ece tapi sudah profesional dan expert menggunakan senjata Api.
Dugaan terlibatnya seseorang berinisial AA yang menjadi pimpinan lembaga super body dalam peperangan melawan korupsi adalah bukti ironisme di Republik Ini. Seseorang yang dipuji-puji sebagai Man of the Year karena keberaniannya dalam pemberantasan korupsi, diduga terlibat dalam kasus pembunuhan yang cukup kejam. Ditambah lagi, pembunuhan ini disinyalir bermotifkan cinta segitiga, ah benar-benar ironis. Seseorang sekelas AA harus terpeleset hanya karena cinta segitiga dengan seorang Caddy Golf.

AA memang ditakdirkan menjadi manusia kontroversial. Pria kelahiran Pangkal Pinang Tahun 1953 ini, sejak awal pencalonannya menjadi ketua KPK telah mengundang berbagai kontroversi. Track recordnya sebagai seorang jaksa banyak yang mempertanyakan. Ketidakberaniannya mengeksekusi Anggota DPRD Sumatera Barat yang telah divonis bersalah dalam korupsi berjamaah, serta keterlambatannya dalam mengeksekusi Tommy Soeharto yang berakibat Tomy Soeharto melarikan diri adalah beberaapa hal yang membuat masyarakat ragu AA dapat memimpin lembaga sekelas KPK.

Pro kontra dan kontroversi nyatanya tidak menggoyahkan Komisi III DPR RI untuk mendapuknya sebagai pimpinan KPK. Keraguan publik pun di jawabnya dengan menangkap beberapa pejabat publik karena dugaan korupsi. Al Amin Nur Nasution, Aulia Pohan, rekan satu Korpsnya Urip Tri Gunawan merupakan pihak-pihak yang menjadi korban kesungguhan AA dalam memberantas Korupsi. Namun sekali lagi Ironis memang, namanya disebut-sebut sebagai salah satu aktor intelektual (intelectual dader) dalam pembunuhan direktur PT. PRB Nasrudin.

Menarik apa yang dikatakan oleh Hidayat Nurwahid pada saat diwawancarai oleh wartawan tentang tanggapannya mengenai kasus ini. "Tentu saja praduga tak bersalah harus diutamakan dalam penegakan hukum dan semestinya penegakan hukum harus dilatarbelakangi oleh keinginan untuk mencapai keadilan dan bukan karena motif politik, balas dendam pribadi dan atau golongan, persaingan antar korps dan mendulang popularitas". Mungkinkah ini akar dari semuanya. Ketidakikhlasan menjadikan segala sesuatu menjadi kurang berkah. Ketidakikhlasan berarti bekerja bukan untuk mengharapkan ridho Tuhan. Coba kita perhatikan betapa Kejaksaaan melalui Kapuspenkumnnya begitu bernafsu untuk melakukan pencekalan terhadap AA, mengumumkan AA adalah tersangka padahal status panggilan pemeriksaan AA adalah sebagai saksi dan Kejaksaan sama sekali tidak berhak mengumumkan seseorang menjadi tersangka. Ah balas dendamkah ini.

Kalaulah ironisme penegakan hukum ini berkelanjutan, lalu kepada siapa kita-kita ini, rakyat kecil kaum proletar harus meminta keadilan. Kalaulah sang penegak hukum dan kriminal adalah dwi tunggal lalu apakah Dewi keadilan telah benar-benar buta dan sama sekali tidak bisa melihat dimana keadilan. Wallahu A'lam.

Evaluasi Pemilu Untuk PKS

Pemilu 9 April 2009 mungkin akan menjadi kenangan yang kurang mengenakkan bagi Partai Keadilan Sejahtera. Target perolehan suara yang membumbung tinggi hingga mencapai 20% hanya menjadi isapan jempol semata. Melalui perhitungan cepat, perolehan suara PKS bahkan tidak sampai setengahnya. Meski bertahan pada posisi 7-8%, hampir sama dengan perolehan suara pemilu 2004, perolehan suara kali ini sungguh sangat mengecewakan. DPP sangat percaya diri suara PKS bisa menembus 2 digit hingga angka 13%, namun hal ini dianggap sangat tidak realistis. Kedigdayaan Partai Demokrat yang melibas perolehan suara partai-partai besar lainnya harus dengan tangan terbuka diakui juga oleh PKS.

Partai Keadilah Sejahtera adalah sebuah Partai yang lahir dari rahim Jamaah Tarbiyah. Sebuah jamaah eksklusif yang menjadikan Ikhwanul Muslimin dibawah pimpinan Hasan Al Banna sebagai panutan dan Uswah. Partai Keadilan Sejahtera mengklaim sebagai sebuah partai dakwah. Partai dalam hal ini adalah ijtihad politik untuk memudahkan jalan dakwah. Keberadaan PKS adalah suatu fenomena, setidaknya ini diakui oleh pengamat politik Indonesia, Kevin Evans. PKS dianggap sebagai salah satu Partai Islam yang paling bersinar. Dari hanya memperoleh kurang dari 2% pada awal kemunculannya ditahun 1999 merangsek hingga mencapai 7,5%.

Melejitnya suara PKS hingga lebih dari 300 kali lipat menambah optimisme dan euforia para ponggawa partai ini untuk mentargekan 20% suara pada pemilu 2009. Dengan 20% suara, PKS akan mencalonkan presiden dari partainya sendiri. Jelas, strategi yang dilakukan adalah menjangkau masa mengambang diluar kadernya. Untuk hal itu, PKS yang awalnya tertutup merubah platform kampanye politiknya untuk menjadi lebih terbuka, menerima semua golongan dan bersedia membuka komunikasi politik dengan partai apapun dan golongan manapun. Miliaran rupiah uang kader digelontorkan untuk kampanye keterbukaan ini. PKS mulai menampilkan parade iklan yang lebih terbuka dan menggelitik bahkan terkadang kontroversial. Perubahan platform kampanye ini dipimpin langsung oleh sang Sekjen, Ust Anis Matta.

Pertanyaannya adalah” Apakah usaha ini berhasil?” Jika perhitungannya adalah penyampaian informasi, mungkin masyarakat mulai menyadari bahwa PKS tidak seekslusif itu. PKS bukanlah hanya diisi orang-orang berjenggot yang tidak bersalaman dengan wanita atau wanitanya yang berjubah rapat bak Ninja. Namun dalam alam demokrasi, informasi terkadang menjadi kurang penting jika efeknya tidak membuat pemilih terpengaruh untuk memilih partai tersebut. “Democracy is majority rule”. PKS gagal menambah perolehan suaranya. Alibi lain yang digunakan sang Sekjen untuk menutupi kegagalan ini adalah, DPT yang semrawut. Banyak pemilih PKS yang tidak terdaftar. Kalau ini alasannya, sandi mawon dengan partai lain. PKS tidak kuat menghadapi gempuran Partai Demokrat yang digawangi oleh incumbent, Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Kurang berpengaruhnya suara PKS, jika tidak ingin mengatakan sebuah kegagalan, pada pemilu kali ini banyak mengundang suara-suara miring dikalangan para kader. Keberanian PKS untuk mengubah platformnya dalam berkampanye menuai protes cukup keras. PKS dianggap telah keluar dari platform politiknya. PKS bahkan dianggap telah keluar dari khittahnya sebagai partai dakwah. Animo untuk menaikkan rating elektabilitas melunturkan dan melenturkan tujuan semula, berdakwah. Isu yang berkembang PKS terpecah menjadi Faksi keadilan dan Faksi Kesejahteraan. Satu faksi menghendaki PKS bertahan seperti semula, kembali ke khittahnya sebagai partai dakwah eksklusif. Pihak lain menghendaki PKS lebih terbuka dan bersedia membuka komunikasi politik dengan partai manapun.

Ujicoba untuk menjadi terbuka nampaknya tidak berhasil. Ijtihad ini hanya berhasil mempertahankan suara para kader plus sedikit tambahan suara para simpatisan. Ijtihad ini pun membuat PKS tidak lagi menjadi unik. Sebagai suatu partai yang paling bersinar diantara partai Islam lainnya, PKS seharusnya mempertahankan keunikannya sebagai Partai Kader dan Partai Dakwah. Prosesnya mungkin akan menjadi lebih lama, karena ini adalah kompetisi demokrasi. Kompetisi dimana suara rakyat disamakan dengan suara Tuhan (Naudzubillah). Keunikan PKS yang khas dan berani berbeda adalah tampilan yang cukup menarik dalam kontes demokrasi. Setidak-tidaknya ini membedakan PKS dengan partai Islam lainnya. Keterbukaan yang dilontarkan seharusnya lebih focus pada penerimaan partai terhadap golongan lain bukan pada perubahan tampilan. Keterbukaan partai untuk menerima yang merah, jingga, kuning, hijau, biru, nila dan ungu seharusnya jangan sekali-kali dilakukan dengan merubah platform. Jelas sekali PKS menampilkan iklan-iklan wanita yang tidak berjilbab atau iklan-iklan yang justru sama sekali menghilangkan jati diri PKS. Luntur, lentur dan pragmatis.

Setidaknya ada hikmah besar pasca kegagalan ini. PKS harus berbenah diri. Pengalaman Partai politik Islam di Indonesia bak bunga yang layu sebelum benar-benar mekar. Akankah PKS seperti itu, wallahu A’lam bishawab. Namun begitulah dakwah, bagaimanapun caranya akan menemui bentuk dan jalannya sendiri. PKS boleh saja mengklaim sebagai Partai Dakwah tetapi Dakwah sama sekali bukan PKS.