JAKARTA: The Indonesian business community is encouraged by Malaysia's openness in recognising its corruption and abuse of power issues and readiness to address the scourge head on.
They believe that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will do all it would take and use his political will to ease investors' concerns about doing business in Malaysia.
Speaking to the Malaysian media at the end of his two-day official visit here, Anwar said, just yesterday, founder and chairman of CT Corp, Chairil Tanjung, had expressed his interest to explore investment opportunities in Malaysia.
"In our private sessions with the business community here, we made it very clear the promise of ease in doing business and the fast pace of approvals in the different divisions.
"They were also given clear assurances by our ministers that things will change.
"The issue of transparency and doing away with commissions were raised. They are convinced of changes that will come with this new political landscape," Anwar said, adding that the commitment to ensure transparency had piqued their interest in looking Malaysia's way as their investment destination.
"Malaysia can then entice them and push for their participation in new economic areas."
The prime minister had without fail in most of his engagements told his audience that he would not stand for corrupt practices or abuse of power, and that he would rather lose his position rather than play ball.
Today, at a Leadership Forum with society leaders and local businessmen, Anwar was asked several times on the issue of Indonesian workers in Malaysia, including their welfare and recruitment.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo had also expressed to Anwar his hope for Putrajaya and Jakarta to formalise a system to better manage Indonesian labourers in Malaysia.
Anwar said Malaysia was looking at digitising the recruitment process and that it would likely result in doing away with the role of middlemen.
Putrajaya, he said, recognised issues that its closest neighbour whose nationals make up the majority of the country's foreign labourers had raised in the past.
"One of the reasons behind this is the dependency on agents. Digitising the system is a way in moving forward," he said.
Aside from application in the various economic sectors including the plantation and service industries, the planned digitised system of recruitment and management of foreign workers would also cover domestic foreign helpers.
The Human Resources and Home ministries, he said, would sit next week to iron out details for a system most suited for the initiative.
Anwar is accompanied by Internationald Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and Malaysian embassy charge d'affaires Adlan Mohd Shaffieq.
His wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was also part of the Malaysian delegation.