FOREIGN INVESTORS STILL NEEDED, SAYS WIRANTO

Jakarta, May 28 (ANTARA) - The presence of foreign investors and multi-national companies in Indonesia is still needed to support national development.

"We are not anti-foreign investors, but the people and national development should get the advantage from their presence in Indonesia," vice presidential hopeful from the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party, Wiranto, said here on Wendesday.

Wiranto said he and presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla upheld the national economic self-reliance but it did not mean that they altogether rejected the presence of foreign investors and multi-national companies.

"Indonesia is not China which in the past would not let in foreign investors at all. We still need them, including in the oil and gas sector. Therefore it is impossible for us to scrap our contract with Exxon for instance, so long as they are advantageous for the people's welfare," Wiranto said.

But he added that everything had its own rule of the game.

"We do not arbitrarily reject foreign investors but their presence should support our economic self-reliance," Wiranto said before leaving for Jambi to dedicate a Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto pair success team for the July 8 presidential election.

In economic policy, Kalla-Wiranto pair adopt economic self-reliance platform with high dignity.