INDONESIA NEEDS 4.4 MILLION ENTREPRENEURS TO BUILD ECONOMY

Jakarta, Dec 9 (ANTARA) - Indonesia must produce 4.4 million new entrepreneurs in the coming 25 years to emerge in economic terms, a noted businessman said.

"Up to now, Indonesia only has 400,000 entrepreneurs," Ciputra, a reputed corporate leader, said here on Tuesday.

He said in terms of per capita income, Indonesia was lagging far behind neighboring countries like Singapore because it only had a relatively small number of entrepreneurs.

"Indonesia's per capita income now is only about US$2,000 while that of Singapore has reached US$30,000," Ciputra said.

He said if Indonesia was unable to produce competent entrepreneurs it would be unable to improve the prosperity of its people.

According to Ciputra, Indonesia can raise its per capita income to US$30,000 if it is able to meet its need for new entrepreneurs.

"At the same time, Singapore's per capita income will have reached US$100,000. One can imagine what will happen if Indonesia is unable to create 4.4 million entrepreneurs in a period of one generation to come. Indonesia will be left farther and farther behind," he said.

Ciputra said many people had so far assumed that the entrepreneural skills could only be acquired by people of a certain race or ethnicity. In fact, it was wrong to think that only Chinese people were able to excel in business.

"Becoming an entrepreneur is not a matter of genetics. Anyone can become an entrepreneur as long as she or he can observe discipline," he added.