Jakarta, 8 December 2004
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also endearingly called ‘Pak Bambang’, gave an audience to Malaysian investors in Indonesia today. He met the Chief Executives of CIMB, YTL, Guthrie and Air Asia. YTL group Managing Director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said he was very impressed with the President’s vision and his desire for greater political and economic engagement with Malaysia.
The President expressed full confidence in the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s leadership, adding that he has met Abdullah three times in a short period and they have both agreed that bilateral relations should be further strengthened.
Pak Bambang was particularly interested in Malaysia’s experience in the area of infrastructural development and expressed his appreciation of YTL Power’s investment in Jawa Power. He was pleased to note that Yeoh will be sharing his experience of providing infrastructural services at competitive prices at a very important conference on Infrastructural solutions for Indonesia to be held in Jakarta in January 2005.
The Malaysian experience in the financing of power generation is unique as a first in Asia – YTL pioneered the idea of using Malaysia’s indigenous currency (Ringgit) to finance the multi billion-dollar power plants instead of using the hitherto pervasively touted US dollars solutions. The destruction of Asian economies as a result of the devaluation of their currencies is well documented.
