REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) plans to revise some contracts of work with foreign investors, especially those which inflict losses for Indonesia. The new policy will allow the natural resources to be processed in Indonesia to develop the downstream industry.
"The contracts with our partners which were made 20-30 years ago and apparently were unfair would be revised. I have a moral obligation to revise it," SBY said on United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), as cited on www.setkab.go.id.
He said the government was drafting some policies to renegotiate the long term contracts with foreign investors which inflict some losses for Indonesia.
Most of the ongoing contracts, he said, inflicted some losses for Indonesia. SBY said Indonesian government would not release its natural resources offhandedly. Foreign companies should give additional value to Indonesian government, such as taxes, job opportunities, and foreign exchange.
President said the renegotiation would be conducted in a good way. "I am in charge to rearrange the unfair contract in a good way, not with nationalization, but with re-discussion. It will be fair," he said.