Letter: Tax holiday

This is a comment on an article titled “Is the tax holiday program sexy enough to attract investment?” (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 24, p. 6).

Whenever Indonesia studies ways to increase its attractiveness to foreigners, (be they tourists or investors), the first rule of business marketing to be kept in mind is: “My best customer is the one that I already have.”

Before looking for gimmicky easy answers to the problem of increasing business, the first step to be taken by Indonesia’s civil administrators is to look at the existing product from the viewpoint of existing customers.

Such an examination quickly reveals that too many foreigners buy the product once and don’t come back. There are things wrong with the product and Indonesia’s ministers don’t show that they aware of what these things are.

In other words, if your product is so attractive that your existing customers keep coming back, they bring their friends and then you don’t have to worry so much about sales and marketing gimmicks, such as tax breaks.

Evan Jones
Batam, Riau Islands