NOW would be the best time for Singapore businesses to invest in Indonesia if they want to profit big, as Southeast Asia's largest nation has seen a major transfer of power and confronts a commodity slump and global headwinds, says Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) hailed Singapores commitment to encouraging investment in Indonesia and hoped for more, especially in the fields of infrastructure and integrated industrial zones like Batam, Bintan and Karimun. "We will immediately settle the issues investors continue to face in the industrial zones of Batam, Bintan and Karimun," the president said in a press statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry here on Wednesday.

Economies across Southeast Asia have endured weaker growth this year. But one sector is powering ahead nevertheless: ecommerce. A surge in internet penetration has encouraged a raft of start-ups across the region. In Indonesia, for example, the number of internet users has risen by 150 per cent a year over the past decade to reach 90m. The government has set a target of 150m by 2019. International information technology players have been piling in.

Thermax is setting up three manufacturing plants — two in India and one overseas. Meher Pudumjee, chairperson, Thermax, said they will be setting up an investment subsidiary in Singapore, through which it will invest in a manufacturing plant in Indonesia, which will become the regional manufacturing hub for the Asean region.

I have lived in Jakarta for quite a while now. I guess I was always naive and thought that Indonesia would be like Singapore; blossoming into a Western liberal democracy. But the pixels are starting to come together and form a totally different picture. It really looks like they have no intention of becoming one, and what’s more; they never had any intention in the first place. The real plan is to be a nation like Japan or Korea: slightly xenophobic, closed and nationalistic.