International Business / Spotlight on Indonesia : After Years of Rehearsal, a Global Role : Economy: The world’s fourth-most- populous country has solid growth, political stability in its favor.

This nation of islands is a very large country with a very low profile. Known in the past mainly as an exporter of oil, its only other claim to fame has been the unique charms of the holiday island of Bali.

But things are about to change. After decades of solid economic growth and political stability, the world’s fourth-most-populous country is emerging onto the world stage.

Later this year, the first Indonesian company will make an appearance on the New York Stock Exchange. Indosat, the state-owned international telecommunications and satellite operator, will sell more than $1 billion worth of shares to foreign investors.

The stock sale will launch Indonesia’s privatization program. Plans are to eventually sell off such jewels in the state crown as Pertimina, the national oil company; the airline Garuda, and more utilities and industrial concerns.

Many of Indonesia’s top business executives and government ministers will promote the Indosat sale in a series of roadshows, which will raise the nation’s profile in the world financial community.

Indonesia, a country of 189 million and one of Asia’s fast-growing “tigers,” will receive wider exposure in November when Jakarta hosts the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, to be attended by President Clinton, more than a dozen other heads of state and thousands of businessmen, journalists and other officials.

In the last decade, Indonesia’s economy has maintained a growth rate of between 5% and 7% annually, pushing gross domestic product to $122 billion. It has grown while lessening its dependence on oil with an aggressive export-oriented economic policy.

Though oil still provides 30% of export revenue, Indonesia’s exports of manufactured goods such as textiles, electronics, toys and wood products have grown rapidly in recent years--about 12% a year until worldwide recession slowed demand in 1993.

Foreign investors from countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States have helped fuel Indonesia’s export growth. For example, U.S. athletic wear manufacturers Nike and Reebok have moved factories from higher-wage, more developed North Asian economies to Indonesia, where wages remain below $2 a day.

Indonesia has attracted about $20 billion a year in foreign investment over the past four years, despite heavy competition for foreign capital from China, India and Vietnam.

Economic deregulation in Indonesia has encouraged foreign investment. With the help of a group of UC Berkeley-educated technocrats who have run the economy since President Suharto took power in the mid-1960s, deregulation has spurred rapid growth in financial services, among other industries.

Foreigners may now own 100% equity in local companies, and a larger group of industries--telecommunications, aviation and shipping among them--have been opened to foreign participation.

Like other Asian countries, Indonesia has found that even with hefty foreign borrowing of more than $90 billion, it will not be able to keep pace with the country’s infrastructure needs unless the private sector is allowed to participate.

Labor riots over low pay earlier this year and pressure from the United States on human rights have made the government conscious of the need for even faster growth. Washington has threatened trade sanctions--affecting about $640 million in exports to the United States--unless Indonesia allows workers to form and freely join labor unions. The country now has only one officially sanctioned union.

“We are discussing workers’ rights and problems with human resources with the Indonesians and we understand the progress made so far,” Winston Lord, assistant U.S. secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said on a visit to Jakarta this month. “Both sides know more needs to be done.”

As Suharto nears the end of his almost 30 years in power, a fairer sharing of wealth is becoming an issue in Indonesia’s more open political climate, which has replaced strict military rule in the past few years.

APEC visitors to Jakarta will find a city of glitzy skyscrapers, smart hotels and modern homes. But those who look more closely will easily spot the shacks of the poor.

Per-capita gross domestic product is $645--higher than China’s but still only a twentieth of Singapore’s. Government planners hope to achieve a per-capita GDP of $1,000 by the end of the century.

Upgrading the status of the 30 million people who still live at the lowest level of society remains Indonesia’s greatest challenge after 25 years of economic development.