[stop-imf] IMF Urged to Stop Interfering in Indonesia's SME Restructuring

[Robert Weissman]

IMF Urged to Stop Interfering in Indonesia's SME Restructuring

JAKARTA, May 27 Asia Pulse - An Indonesian cabinet minister has urged the
IMF
to stop interfering in the small and medium enterprises (SME) restructuring

the government is currently discussing.

"Outsiders need not intervene into our domestic affairs because the (SME
restructurization) does not cause others to bear burdens," State Minister
for
Cooperatives and SMEs Alimarwan Hanan told journalists here at the weekend.

The SME restructuring was meant for Indonesians that would cause other
sides
to bear burdens so that the IMF need not interfere in that matter.

The Washington-based financial body recently rejected the government's plan

to provide ailing SMEs with haircut (for their non-performing debts).

In response to the outcome of Indef, a Jakarta-based economic study center,

which suspected that the medium enterprises would get more benefit from the

government-initiated restructurization of the SMEs than the small ones,
Hanan
said those getting the positive gains were only the crisis-hit ones.

The ailing SMEs, which could no longer continue their business, had to
handle
their problems with the government-controlled banks. The government just
wanted to restore the ailing ones in order that they could operate again,
he
said.

Indonesia currently has at least 40 million SMEs.