November 1998. Five delegates from PT Astra Tbk pay a visit to the offices of the Industrial Bank of Japan in Tokyo. Tensions rise as soon as Astra’s President Director Rini Mariani Soemarno begins speaking.

Senior officials of the Japanese bank were disappointed to hear Soemarno ask for a rescheduling of debt repayments. And...crash! “We were received with a blow like that,” says Soemarno remembering the meeting.

The economic crisis that