Jane Perlez from The New York Times was the guest speaker at the Swedish Business Luncheon on October 29, 2004 at Hotel Mulia. She presented a surprisingly dark picture of the American view on Indonesia and the recent election. It was very clear that her view, as well as her newspaper, is that Indonesia and in particular the islamic part, is a threat against US and the western world. Even though the new elite that is growing up has been educated in the west, they are in the end fundamentalist that will drive Indonesia towards theocracy.

1. SBA News
The NIR delegation arriving on December 6-10 are now confirmed and SBA will arrange a round table discussion on December 7 at Marriott Hotel with a following lunch. If you are interested to participate contact me ASAP. The delegation will have several meetings with government officials on the investment climate in Indonesia. We will have a pre-meeting on Friday December 3. There will be a special invitation to all members for this pre-meeting. We are looking forward to this visit.
The planning for the visit of the boat "Ostindifararen" has started. Even though it's not until the summer of 2006, we need to look into what it can do for Swedish Business in Indonesia. The visit will be several weeks and I believe that it will get very large media attention so it's better to be a part of it than not........

1. SBA News
It has been a very exciting month with a lot of things happening, some good other very sad. First of all, Ericsson celebrated their 97th birthday with an interesting event called "Capture the moment". The host and country manager Mitch Lewis showed us all that what Swedish technology is all about. A delegation from Sweden with Ericsson lead by CEO Carl-Henrik Svanberg melted well in with traditional Indonesian batik.
We also had Svenska Handelsbanken's Jan Häggström give his view on Nordic companies Global outlock. A very interesting perspective and in the long run suddenly Indonesia is actually a country with good chance to prosper in the future. Handelsbanken made it clear that they intend to enter Indonesia and support companies doing business here.
Sida visited Indonesia to see what could be done to support Indonesia and the democratic process. SBA got the chance from the Embassy to present input and give a picture from the businesses point of view. I believe that both Sida and we from SBA benefited from this Embassy initiative.

1. SBA News
Our last board meeting consisted mostly of updates from the secretariat. It was decided to continue with the information exchange and I hope to be able to have a few large questionnaires made during October. These will be mainly on security, labor and banking. The results will be available to members via the website.
The last Nordic Event, which was held by SBA was a success and very appreciated. Both me and Charlie Oropeza mixed a bit humor in to the seriousness of where the Indonesian legal system can carry you. With 50 participants it comes in as expected. We will follow up the success with another Nordic Event already on October 1, this time a luncheon sponsored by Handelsbanken. You are invited to listen to Jan Häggström, Chief Economist at Handelsbanken on his view on the Indonesia in particular and ASEAN in general. The even will be at Aryaduta Hotel on October 1 start at 12.30. There are no charge, but there are limited seats so it's best to let me know your interest immediately. Send me a mail and let me know if you want to attend.
We are also currently planning a visit from a industrial delegation in December 6-10 this year. You should all put this in to your calendars and if you have some special interest to participate, please let me know. There will be several companies represented and you might already got some input from your HQ. I will call for a meeting during October on this matter and will keep you posted on the development, but if you have a special interest, let me know and we can meet up and discuss special requests.

1. SBA News
EuroCham will from first of September has it's office in World Trade Center on 10th floor. The Executive Manager will be Mrs. Juta Petrini. The last board meeting was on August 12 at Mercantile Club. Jurgen Lagleder chaired this meeting. The Board has now been extended with 4 bilateral chambers, namely British, French, German and Dutch Chambers. With 12 members in the board, EuroCham is now prepared to get work done. The new office and executive manager will be used to get sector groups as well as a few introduction luncheons going.

The Nordic event will be at August 26 at Aryaduta Hotel starting at 18.00. There will be a 3 course dinner as well as free flow of beer and softdrink. The guest speakers will be Mr. Charlie Oropeza, CEO for Prudential Indonesia, he will give his side of the story in the attempt to get Prudential bankrupt. The Indonesian bankruptcy law has shown to be something that can get everyone of us. And everyone with a large cash flow will be targeted sooner or later. Further more myself, Michael Olsson, will give the story on how you as a victim suddenly can be prosecuted and blackmailed for money. Really a wild western story and something you probably will hear a lot more about when the strike back at the prosecutors office become public. Looking forward to see you all there....