Indonesian markets fell precipitously earlier this month (as did many markets around the world); the financial crisis is all the more troubling for Indonesia, however, because it never fully recovered from the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. A delegation of eight officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Central Bank of Indonesia met with several Cornell faculty members in the Southeast Asia Program Oct. 16 to seek input on how to improve the perception of Indonesia on such financial issues as the sovereign credit rating and the country risk classification.

The visit included a meeting with Nicolas van de Walle, the J.S. Knight Professor of International Studies and director of the Einaudi Center for International Studies; a videoconference with Iwan Azis, professor of economics, on Indonesia's monetary, fiscal and debt strategy; Erik Thorbecke, the H.E. Babcock Professor Emeritus of Economics and Food Economics, on Indonesia's economic development; and Sarosh Kuruvilla, director of the Southeast Asia Program and professor of comparative industrial relations, collective bargaining and Asian studies.

The delegation also met with graduate students in the Johnson School to discuss the perception of Indonesia in the U.S. mass media.