Business Match-Making

Sugeng ndalu (good night)," 37-year-old Mahmudi Fukumoto greeted in Javanese, by telephone from Kawasaki, Japan, two weeks ago. Even though he has lived in Japan for the past 14 years, he has not forgotten his mother tongue. He spoke for almost an hour about his company, his project and his vision: to help match Indonesians who interned in Japan with the right local franchise companies back home.

It is a highly ambitious vision, given that he knows little Japanese, virtually no English and not much Indonesian. He is fluent only in his Javanese dialect. But he is determined to do something towards the development of his country, in his own way. "I dream of an economically-independent Indonesia," said Mahmudi.