Jakarta. Indonesia ranked 14th globally when it came to measuring the inflow of foreign direct investment last year, climbing five places from 2013, according to a recent report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The World Investment Report 2015, which was published on Wednesday, said Indonesia booked about $23 billion in foreign direct investment last year, up 21 percent from $19 billion in 2013.

The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) hopes to attract more Japanese and Chinese investors to open factories in the country after others have proven successful in business here.

AEON Mall, a subsidiary of Japan's largest retailer AEON Group, recently launched its first shopping mall in Indonesia. The massive facility is developed and operated by AMSL, in partnership with AEON and the local real estate giant, Sinar Mas Land. "Indonesian market is expected to grow, supported by the significant economic growth and the increasing middle-class. We want to contribute to the economic growth of Indonesia through our retail business.

The urgent, as they say, is too often the enemy of the important. We are rightly concerned with a bevy of foreign issues, many of them genuine crises — terrorism in the Middle East and at home, China’s territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea, Barack Obama’s likely sellout to Iran in a weak nuclear deal. But one crisis is starting to gather near to us, which we haven’t really noticed. That is the astonishingly rapid unravelling of the presidency of Joko Widodo in Indonesia.

[JAKARTA] For Indonesian drug maker PT Kalbe Farma, a ban on using currencies other than the rupiah for local transactions is coming at the worst possible time. Bank Indonesia will prohibit an estimated US$12 billion a day of such trades between domestic parties from July 1. Kalbe Farma pays local suppliers in dollars for many raw materials and the rule will push up procurement expenses by 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent, said Director Vidjongtius.