Invest in Indonesia?<\/p>\n
We are a foreign owned company (PMA) operating in Dompu, of
\nSumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, in the production of cultured pearls
\nunder the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.<\/p>\n
The company started operations in early 1997 and has now
\nbecome one of the biggest investments, amounting to trillions of
\nrupiah, in the Dompu district, and is considered to be a major
\ncontribution to the welfare of the very resource-poor area of
\nCalabai, Dompu.<\/p>\n
We employ over 23,000 full-time staff, 70 to 100 contract
\nworkers and consistently donate to the local community.<\/p>\n
We have observed many structural changes, primarily
\ndecentralization, to the Indonesian government and their effects
\non our administrative processes since the onset of our
\noperations.<\/p>\n
Presently, our company is very concerned about the apparent
\ncorrelation between the significant investment our foreign
\nshareholders have made and the lack of support we receive from
\nrelevant government authorities\/ministries\/departments (too many
\ndepartments to keep track of), and most alarmingly, the absolute
\nnon-supportive role of the local police department to keep our
\ninvestment safe.<\/p>\n
First, there seems to be a great confusion as to where the
\nauthority lies within all government levels. We are a PMA
\ncompany, and are now being asked to pay ridiculous amounts of
\nmoney by our district government on things (permits, taxes, etc.)
\nthat, in the past, we paid to Jakarta at a much smaller scale.<\/p>\n
Second, and most important, is our security situation, which
\nhas been declining severely in the last two years, and in light
\nof our most recent security threat, our company could soon be on
\nthe verge of collapse if nothing changes in the attitude and
\ndiscipline of the local police department.<\/p>\n
Given the overall situation of insecurity above, I appeal to
\nthe Indonesian government, in this \"Year of Foreign Investment\"
\nas declared, to consider our case as another alarming sign that
\nthe foreign investment climate will never improve if the mind-set
\nand attitude of the government doesn't change.<\/p>\n
FRANCESCO BRUNO, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/invest-in-indonesia-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }