Second and Third Thoughts on Privatisation in Indonesia

I ndonesia’s economic policies began to become much more market oriented during the 1980s. Various policy reforms were implemented, notably in the field of international trade (Fane and Condon, 1996). In addition, there came to be a new emphasis on privatisation, although this was nearly all talk and no action (Hill, 2000:103-5). In 1989 the then Finance Minister announced that 52 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) would be listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange between 1990 and 1992 (Habir, 1990:101); in the event, almost none were. In 1993, the then Minister for Research and Technology, B. J. Habibie, claimed that a similar number could be sold quickly (McLeod, 1993:7); again, almost nothing came of this. Nevertheless, although there was a conspicuous lack of progress with privatisation as normally conceived, there are several examples of effective privatisation, provided this term is interpreted sufficiently broadly.