disaster relief

Tsunami Bringing Long List of Profiteers

By Jocelyn Gecker
Associated Press Writer

January 27, 2005

CBN.com – JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- For those looking to make a buck, Indonesian entrepreneur Sigip Samsu has some advice: head to tsunami-wrecked Sumatra. He rushed there after the disaster and hasn't stopped reaping the benefits of a land in need of plenty.

Samsu moved his helicopter charter service to Sumatra just after the Dec. 26 disaster and has been booked solid by aid agencies, journalists and "businessmen looking for opportunities." Few flinch at his fee of up to $1,500 an hour.

"We are fully booked," Samsu says of his shuttle service from the Sumatran city of Medan into hard-hit Aceh province. "It's the business of the future."

This disaster, like others before it, has its long list of profiteers. Some are black market vendors making money off misery: pirated DVDs of the tsunami's real-life horror show are now on sale in Indonesia, Thailand and India.

But there are also people and companies making legitimate profit from the business of disaster relief.

Aid agencies distributing critical food and medical supplies are doing much of their buying locally - pumping millions of dollars into companies that make the dried noodles, rice, mineral water and medicine that gets handed out to survivors.

USAID, the American government's foreign aid agency, has spent $39 million in Indonesia since the disaster struck, spokeswoman Roberta Rossi said by telephone from Banda Aceh.

Buying supplies is only part of the expense. Cartons of aid need to be delivered in vehicles, and the agency allocated $1 million just to cover the rental of 80 trucks and drivers, Rossi said.

Acehnese who speak English are in high demand by aid agencies and journalists who need translators. The going rate is $50 a day - the rough equivalent of a civil servant's monthly wage in pre-disaster Aceh.

Other basic expenses for outsiders in Aceh include drivers, about $60 a day, and housing. Most aid agencies and media have settled in an upper-class Banda Aceh neighborhood untouched by the disaster, where current market rents rival those of New York City. The rent for a two-bedroom home that previously cost the equivalent of a few hundred dollars has soared as high as $5,000 a month.

The big work remains ahead - the rebuilding of bridges, homes and full city blocks of cement buildings that collapsed. Millions of dollars in aid donations are earmarked for the rebuilding phase.

Indonesian companies specializing in infrastructure, cement and heavy-equipment have seen share prices soar.

Since Dec. 26, the share price of Adhi Karya, a majority state-owned construction firm specializing in building bridges and roads, has jumped 39 percent. Heavy equipment specialist United Tractors has seen its stock price jump 16 percent. Overall infrastructure-related firms are outperforming the Jakarta stock exchange index, which has risen only 3 percent over the same period.

"This will be a year of construction," said Baradita Katopo, head of research and Kim Eng Securities. "Many firms are already benefiting from Aceh."

Local and international telecommunications companies are also raking in money from the increased traffic of aid workers and journalists chatting for hours on mobile phones and satellite systems.

The Thuraya satellite phone company, widely used across the Middle East and Africa, is accelerating previous plans to boost coverage in Asia.

Samsu, the helicopter pilot, said many of his clients worked for telecommunications firms. Some rented his helicopter on 20-hour contracts. The 44-year-old entrepreneur who transferred to Sumatra from Jakarta said he's in such high demand he often sends prospective clients to his competitors.

Indonesia's debt-ridden national airline, Garuda, was experiencing booming business.

Banda Aceh's once sleepy airport transformed into an international hub for relief workers, with thousands of aid workers needing flights.

Garuda, which had previously operated two flights a day into Banda Aceh, increased its service to as many as 10 flights daily, said airline spokesman Pujobroto, who goes by a single name.

International conglomerates have given tons of aid to tsunami-stricken countries - and would prefer to focus on that rather than tsunami-related revenue.

Danone, the food and drink conglomerate, has donated 1 million bottles of its mineral water Aqua, the top-selling bottled water in Indonesia. It has also given 1 million packs of Danone biscuits and 400,000 bottles of milk - though that is just a fraction of the Danone products purchased by aid workers for distribution.

Stefanus Felix, a spokesman, said Danone was selling its products at a "special price" to humanitarian groups but declined to elaborate.

"Talking about business in a situation like this," he said, "I don't think it's appropriate."

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