Australia Keen on Investing $5 Bln in Indonesia

Head of BKPM Thomas Lembong (strait times)JAKARTA, NETRALNEWS.COM – The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) says ten companies in Australia are interested in investing $4 billion-$5 billion in Indonesia.

The companies’ interest in the investment was conveyed by CEOs of the ten companies when they met with President Joko Widodo in Sydney.

Thomas Lembong, Head of Investment Coordinating Board, said the potential investments were from the mining, food and beverage, tourism and hotel, and infrastructure sectors.

President Joko Widodo asked each of the CEOs about the company’s interest and commitment in developing their businesses in Indonesia. The business meeting was also aimed at gathering the experience of the businesses when conducting business in Indonesia.

One of the inputs conveyed by the Australian investors is the facilitation of Halal certification process for multivitamin product. The mining and mineral processing company also made a presentation about their investment in North Sumatra.

“One of the investors in the hotel sector plans to expand its hotel network in Indonesia to 100 over the next 3-4 years. The hotel investor owns 8,000 hotels worldwide, 1,200 hotels in China, and only 10 hotels in Indonesia,” Thomas said on Sunday (2/26).

In addition, an investment financing company is also interested in financing a new renewable power plant project with capacity of 200 megawatts.

Moreover, BKPM also invited Austrate—a government institution tasked on promoting and attracting investments to and from Australia.

The latest survey conducted by Austrade on Australia’s business community placed Indonesia at fifth place on investment priority.

Meanwhile, actual investments from Australia in Indonesia reached $174 million in 2016, or a slight gain of 4% from $167 million in the previous year.

BKPM targets Australia’s total investment in Indonesia to reach $3 billion, or around IDR39 trillion by the next 3-5 years. (*)