YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WORRY ABOUT FOREIGN PRESENCE IN ENERGY SECTOR

Jakarta, March 6 (ANTARA) - The general chairman of the Association of Indonesian Young Enterpreneurs (HIPMI), Erwin Aksa, expressed concern here on Thursday over increasing foreign presence in the energy sector.

He feared foreigners' control over the sector would make them easy to come and go like in the country's capital market.
He said that foreigners had already dominated the country's energy sector which was protected in other countries.
He said India and China had no longer exported coals while the two countries were the world's main coal producers. Indonesia, however, continued exporting it, which could threaten national energy stock.
"More threatening is that the sector is already controlled by foreign parties. This could happen because we have no grand strategy to secure national energy," he said.
He said if the sector was fully controlled by foreigners Indonesia's economy would in the future be easily hurt through the sector.
He said in view of that HIPMI would launch a campaign on national economic self-reliance in its plenary meeting on March 9-10.
"It is time for us to get rid of foreign parties because we gained nothing so far from our dependency on them," he said.
The meeting is scheduled to be opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and closed by Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Around 2,000 young businessmen from across the country would attend the meeting to produce important points to boost the country's economic self-reliance which would be HIPMI's recommendation for the government.