Indonesia, Inc

Book excerpt: This book is the authors account of the challenges facing this businessman in the bureaucracy as he tries to make economic sense of the vast, and money-losing State-Owned Enterprises (SOE's) in Indonesia. His mission: to reform and provatise the SOEs in order to take pressure off the national buedget, attract investment, improve management skills, and change a vureaucratic culture for a commercial one focused on competition. The book covers an 18 month period, from March 1997 to the end of 1998, a period when Indonesia's economy was in crisis and the country's edconomic policies were being overhauled. The author recounts his experiences and lessons learnt which provides a model and method for others in simolar situations.