TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Vice President MegawatiSukarnoputri called upon the Indonesian BankRestructuring Agency (IBRA) to complete its task.Coordinating Minister for Political, Social andSecurity Affairs Agum Gumelar made this comment duringa press conference after a closed meeting foreconomics at the Merdeka Selatan Palace today (22/6).

Agum said that three years before the scheduledcompletion of the program most of the tasks have notbeen completed. So far, only 20 percent of the taskshad been finalized. Therefore he said that the VicePresident expected improved coordination between theCoordinating Minister for the Economy and theCoordinating Minister for Political, Social andSecurity Affairs in solving the many cases handled byIBRA.

“We cannot afford to suffer any dilemmas in theprocess of selling assets. IBRA aims to sell theassets at the highest prices, but the buying power isrelative. So, if it is observed that assets are beingsold at noticeably low prices, please understand thatthis is how it has to be,” Agum said.

At the same time, Minister of Finance Rizal Ramli saidthat IBRA has not performed to the best of itsability. “IBRA should sell the total assets of Rp 540trillion. This year the agency should sell Rp 27trillion. The value of unsold assets amounts to Rp 513trillion and their value is steadily decreasing due topoor management,” he said.

Vice President Megawati has reportedly requested thatIBRA handle the cases properly before the conclusionof their term. “It should try to maintain and managethe assets properly so that their value is retained,”Rizal said on behalf of Megawati.

At the same time, Coordinating Minister for theEconomy Burhanuddin Abdullah, emphasized theimportance of coordination between the ministers forspeedy processing of decisions. The meeting heldtoday, he said, was also intended to foster consensusas to the best way to handle the IBRA case.

“Actually the IBRA program involves so many differentaspects, such as industry, macro economics andmanpower issues. And then there is the internationalaspect, such as bilateral relationships with foreigncountries and multilateral agencies,” he said.

As a follow up to the instructions of Vice PresidentMegawati, the two coordinating ministers have calledfor an special coordination meeting. “It is scheduledfor next week,” Agum said. The special meeting willdiscuss how to achieve implementation of the programmore effectively and how to streamline coordinationbetween the two coordinating ministers.