RI FINANCE MINISTER CANCELS VISIT TO JAPAN

Tokyo, July 5 (ANTARA) - Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has canceled a planned visit to Japan to sign a bilateral swap agreement (BSA) in Japan worth Rp150 trillion, sources at the Indonesian Embassy here said on Sunday.

Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Jusuf Anwar when contacted by ANTARA confirmed the cancellation of the minister's visit but he did not explain the minister's reason for the cancellation.

But a number of officials have been assigned to replace the minister for the visit such as Bank Indonesia (BI) Deputy Governor Hartadi A. Sarwono, Debt Management Director General of the Finance Ministry Rahmat Waluyanto and Head of the Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Affiars Anggito Abimanyu.

Minister Mulyani has previously explained that the government had met with the Japanese finance minister to discuss the matter. In Japan, the minister was scheduled to hold talks on the Japanese loans with her Japanese counterpart Kaoru Yosano, and with Economic, Trade and Industry (METI) Minister Toshihiro Nikai.

The Indonesian and Japanese governments have signed an agreement on the issuance of 'Samurai' bonds in yen worth US$1.5 billion.

Japan assigned the Japan for International Cooperation (JBIC) as underwriter for the issuance of the Samurai bonds.

The bonds were to be issued in an effort to strengthen the export-import relations of both nations amid the slowing down of the global economic development.

The issuance of the bonds still needed further preparations, particularly projects which would be used as underlying assets.

Japan is one of Indonesia's main creditors besides the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, particularly in the development of infrastructure and energy.

Up to 2008, Indonesia's debts to Japan were recorded at US$29.61 billion while in 2009 the nominal value of its debts (including multilateral ones) had reached US$27.33 billion, or 43.2 percent of its total external debts.***2**