VICE PRESIDENT BUDIONO RECEIVES GEORGE SOROS

Jakarta Forum - Jakarta, Vice President Boediono here Wednesday received international money businessman George Soros with his spokesman later saying the visitor was expected to encourage foreign investors to sink their funds in Indonesia.

"The vice president hopes Soros` views still carry weight among investors although Soros himself is no longer active in the investment field," Boediono`s spokesman, Yopie Hidayat, said after the meeting.

The vice president gave Soros, founder of the Open Society Foundation, an update on Indonesia`s economic and financial conditions.

"Soros wanted to know more about Indonesia`s economic situation as the country was considered to have great potentials for investment," Yopie said.

"According to Soros, Indonesia is one of the countries in the world appearing on investors` `radar.` Soros explained there was great interest in possibilities to invest in Indonesia," he said.

But Boediono and Soros did not discuss Indonesia`s present economic and financial conditions intensively.

Beside as founder of the Open Society Institute and a philanthropist, Soros is also known as a money speculator who hoards and sells currencies.

In 1982, Soros made a profit of 1.2 billion US dollars in a very short time from money market activity in Pound sterling which earned him the epithet "The Man Who Broke the Pound."

Soros is also considered to have been responsible for the Asian monetary crisis in 1997.

Source: Antara News