Learning Experience Indonesia 1 - 1

12 August 2008

I am at the airport again. This time to Jakarta, Indonesia....... hence the Learning Experience Indonesia :)

For those who are not familiar with Jakarta, it is the capital of Indonesia with a population of about 9 -10 million. For Jakarta - imagine New Delhi with more high rise buildings, cleaner and more traffic jam (like Mumbai) this is Jakarta. Instead of Indian you will find Indonesian, instead of Hindu religion you will find Islam and mosques everywhere. Generally the country is very religious and majority of Indonesian are muslims. There is a disparity between the rich and the poor, which you will find slum (slightly better than Dharavi) around the capital of Jakarta. Indonesia comprises of a series of islands.... not hundreds, not thousands but over 17000 islands so you can image the diversity of the country in terms of people, culture and business....

In general business is not much different from the Indians... very relationship based and corruption do exist........ Your may recollect in my class where I was explaining bad business practice well .... according to the Transparency International, Indonesia is in the top ten ranking :)

Generally the country has been through a lot since the financial crisis in 1997, they have been through four Presidents in the last ten over years (Harbibi, Wahid, Megawati and now Yudoyodhno) but it is a country which is very resilient in term of their people and they are also resource rich. I read somewhere that the number of children completing 12 years of education is about 90% compare to India about 70%. So they too have a strong pool of young people. Personally this is one country that is over look because tof their Islamic fundamentalism.

In this short trip, I have an assignment to do strategic planning workshop for two days at a tomato ketchup......

Have to board the plane now.... to be continued.