JAKARTA - INDONESIAN tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, who wants to run for president in 2014, believes that better infrastructure is more likely to attract foreign investors to South-east Asia's biggest economy than fighting corruption.
Mr Bakrie, who is chief social minister in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government, is a member of the Golkar Party, the political machine which dominated parliament for decades under former President Suharto but which has lost much of its support in Indonesia's post-Suharto democracy.
Mr Bakrie, whose family controls coal-miner Bumi Resources, plantations, property, and telecoms firms, is regarded as a holdover from the Suharto era.
He is an opponent of Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the finance minister and coordinating economic minister who has promoted reform and the fight against graft.
Mr Bakrie also owns infrastructure businesses such as toll roads.
'What they (investors) want is infrastructure,' followed by less red tape and more transparency, Mr Bakrie said in an interview with Reuters on Monday.
'During the Suharto era, total investment per year was much more than now, and at that time the corruption was a lot compared to now, yet they (foreigners) invested.'![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uCaZed5NVKBc6pGGhT_01G-1EBKUTlRKCuG4OxBM63RZNCbLtltZ4MWjgQD_UF4XmLE_lha5spp8_pxjsqxfsCGr0AOG3PfA1n8SNF-50l8cAT5k8jtvjs0VuerikSXeULH3D99duZVvPLk35kiAc=s0-d)
