T

em>The 10th annual meeting of Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia — the East ASEAN Growth Area (BMPI-EAGA) — took place in Balikpapan from May 14 to May 16. The meeting, hosted by Indonesia’s Maritime Affairs and Fishery Ministry, aimed to reduce trade and investment blockages in the area. To provide insight on the initiative, the ministry’s secretary-general, Gellwyn Jusuf, shared his thoughts with reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. Here are the excerpts:

Question: What is the main purpose of the BMPI-EAGA meeting?

Answer: This meeting takes place annually and our goal has always been to synergize the provincial administrations and regencies in each country. The core focus is on how to develop substantial relationships with private businesses, not only domestically but also among the four countries — Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia. So, in a sense, we want to probe the level of involvement of the private sector in development projects in the countries. Basically, what is expected from the meeting is to reduce state border regulatory issues so that investments can freely go in and out among the four countries. What we expect moving forward is to establish top-down programs among governments of the countries, to see what opportunities can be created and whether those are good enough to lure private businesses from the four countries to invest. So, this meeting also aims to facilitate private businesses to find investment opportunities that might interest them.

What progress was made in this 10th meeting?

The meeting is more like a facilitator, so our progress is measured by the number of investments that we have achieved and that there is always a move forward. We have specialized working groups to ensure our goals are achieved.

 The working groups are on fisheries, agro-industry, tourism and energy. For example, for the energy working group, we decided to focus on interconnectivity and we have achieved that goal in East Kalimantan. So, private businesses can really utilize these forums to look for opportunities. Then, it is up to the provincial governments and regencies to utilize the momentum to develop their regions.

Are there any incentives that will be given to lure more private sector investors?

Through the years, we have tried to develop a special economic zone if all parties agreed, and our cooperation and its results have been satisfactory. We have not yet been able to reach an agreement to implement the special economic zone idea, however, we believe what is important for today is for the central government in each respective country to reduce regulations that have become barriers for trade and investment. We will discuss these kinds of regulations and we will take our discussion results to a higher forum that will be attended by senior officials from these four countries. So, this meeting is more like a gathering for exchanging information. If there are complaints, we will take them into account. For example, if a country complains about a regulation that has made their private sector face investment difficulties, we will try to discuss it or take it to another discussion in a higher forum. The economic bonds between the four countries are intense, therefore, they require special attention.

Could you provide us an example of such a complaint?

For example, Malaysia really wants to invest in cattle husbandry in South Sulawesi but our regulation does not allow live cattle to be exported. Malaysia keeps on asking why they cannot import live cattle, despite the fact that they are interested in investing.

How would you measure the success of EAGA meetings?

We cannot expect these meetings to immediately have a direct impact on investments nor expect all of the deals made to be implemented within weeks. These meetings are for information exchanges. We share everything that we need to and representatives from each country will return to their homeland and will publicly announce the offers and the requests that are being made. This is why these meetings are crucial, because most future investments are triggered from information exchanges. We cannot say that these meetings do not provide anything concrete. The impact will be felt over time.

Was there any input on infrastructure from other countries?

They gave us a lot of input. We have the Master Plan for the Acceleration of Economic Development program, also known as the MP3EI. Their input is the basis that we use to determine which infrastructure programs will be prioritized in the MP3EI.

Has the progress of the MP3EI been satisfactory?

Based on the data from the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, we have had a lot of groundbreaking projects over the last year. We also periodically discuss regulatory revisions, resolving bottlenecks and technology development.