The chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board has said closer ties with the United States and President Barack Obama’s forthcoming visit should help push Indonesia closer to being a trillion-dollar economy within five years, despite that meaning a growth rate of up to 15 percent a year. “I think there’s a good reason to feel optimistic,” Gita Wirjawan said.

The planned revisions to the negative investment list will not be enforced retroactively, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. The government is finalizing a revision of the 2007 presidential decree that bans or limits foreign investment in certain sectors. But Sri Mulyani said existing foreign investors would not be affected by the changes. “There is a grandfather [clause] for foreign investors who entered before this new policy came into effect,” she said.  JG

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will accelerate efforts to increase investment and to boost trade in services as it seeks a greater role in driving the global economy. Asean trade ministers set deadlines for completing agreements covering investments and trade in goods and services, Surin Pitsuwan, the bloc’s secretary general, said after a weekend meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia. The group aims to form an integrated economic community by 2015.

The House of Representatives’ Commission VI, which oversees trade and industry, has asked the Business Competition Supervisory Commission to step up efforts to protect domestic businesses from unfair business practices under the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement. The deputy chairman of Commission VI, Ariel Bima, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said Indonesian businesses need to be protected from unfair foreign competition.