Indonesia to Let Foreigners into More Sectors

  • Wednesday, November 6, 2013
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  • Keywords:Indonesia
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The government has pledged to revise a list of industry sectors open to foreign companies as a part of an effort to boost foreign investment amid declining growth figures.
 
The list will be less restrictive and more investment friendly, Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, said on Saturday.
 
“We will report our progress to the president this November, and hopefully release the new list by the end of the year,” Hatta told reporters.
 
He refused to give further details as economic ministers will have their final meeting today, before reporting back to the president.
 
Among the opportunities closed to foreigners are investments in telecommunication towers, vessel traffic information systems, and timber and forest plantations, according to a presidential regulation issued in 2010.
 
Revising the list is among a series of efforts by the government to attract foreign direct investment, Hatta said.
 
“Government will also omit some permits that are deemed to be complicating investment,” he said.
 
Mahendra Siregar, chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said that his office had revised next year’s investment target to Rp 450 trillion ($40.2 billion), down 12 percent from the initial target of Rp 506 trillion, due to the uncertainty of economic growth in emerging economies around the world.
 
“It’s still quite large. Our focus now is not to seek for rapid acceleration, but to maintain our pace,” Mahendra said.
 
Total foreign and domestic investment rose 23 percent year-on-year to a record Rp 100.5 trillion in the July-to-September period, after increasing 30 percent in the second quarter, according to BKPM data.
 
In the January-to-September period, total investment reached Rp 293.3 trillion, which itself is about 75 percent of the BKPM’s 2013 target of Rp 390 trillion.
 
Slowing investment and falling exports have slowed the expansion of the Indonesian economy, with Bank Indonesia cutting its economic growth forecast to 5.9 percent this year.
 
Indonesia’s current-account deficit — the broadest measure of trade — stood at $9.8 billion in the second quarter of the year, or 4.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Exports have slowed as demand from big nations, including China and India, have weakened.
 
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