News Analysis: Local governments: From rent-seekers to business partners

Vincent Lingga , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Mon, 05/26/2008 10:13 AM Headlines

Provincial, regency and municipal administrations are competing with each other to offer multibillion dollar development projects to domestic and foreign investors at the Regional Investment Forum opening here today.

They are promoting a wide variety of projects in agribusiness, mining, infrastructure, property and tourism worth between about US$145,000 and $780 million.

They include a railway project in Riau, tree-crop plantations in various provinces, a toll road and an international seaport in Banten province, industrial estates and integrated farming in Central Java. What an encouraging development.

This is strikingly different from the mind-set of regional administrations during the first two years of regional autonomy from 2001 when regional chiefs and legislators, excited by their newly acquired authority, rushed to enact bylaws aimed mostly at collecting additional rents from businesses.

Many regional administrations, euphoric about their newly gained power, flexed their muscles to grab a larger share of the wealth from natural resources. They resorted to the easy, unsustainable ways of raising revenue by squeezing companies with additional taxes and levies.

They did not realize that this rent-seeking attitude would sooner or later kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.

The Home and Finance Ministries were forced to revoke almost 1,000 regional bylaws contravening national laws.

Nevertheless, the mind-set of most regional administrations has changed over the past three to four years, especially after the introduction of direct elections for regional chiefs.

As provincial governors, regents and mayors compete in direct elections, economic performance directly benefiting the people becomes the most effective means of gaining voter support.

Thus, job creation has become an important performance measure of a regional chief executive.
Hence, regional chiefs must be friendly to the business community, but not corrupt, and establish sound business partnerships.

This new paradigm requires regional chiefs to put pro-business policies at the top of their economic agendas because it is investors who generate jobs. This in turn fuels purchasing power and spurs consumer demand for various goods and services from which local administrations can raise levies.

The virtuous circle generated by investment goes on and on, raising the value of property and consequently increasing property tax receipts, of which 90 percent goes directly to regional administrations.

Within the national context, business-friendly local administrations can contribute greatly to economic growth because most of the country's abundant natural resources, such as forests, agriculture, fisheries, mining and tourist attractions, are located in the provinces and regencies.

Certainly, the enthusiasm and aggressiveness with which regional administrations woo investment are not the same. Several provincial administrations, for example, send teams on investment missions in nearby countries such as Singapore, where most global investors set up their regional offices.

Several regencies have hired professional consultants to help them plan, design and implement investment promotion programs. Many others woo investment by expediting business licenses.
Others have not been as aggressively implementing pro-business policies due to inadequate institutional capacities and a lack of financial and natural resources.

However, provinces or regencies with poor natural endowments should not be put off as investors often see policy variables as the main factors influencing their decisions to set up business in a particular area.

Policy variables -- including legal certainty, policy consistency and predictability, public services and local regulations -- often weigh heavier for investors than physical infrastructure, labor supply and productivity.

The second regional investment forum is a good opportunity for regional administrations to learn how to promote investment projects, what investors really want and how to attract more businesses to their areas.

The success of this forum should not be calculated by the value of investment deals closed but, more importantly, seen through the ongoing attitudinal changes of regional administrations toward the private sector, not only as taxpayers, but also as the driver of economic growth.
Furthermore, business-friendly local administrations will be greatly conducive to the development of small enterprises and cooperatives in rural areas across the country.