JAKARTA — Red cranes hover over the vast skeleton of a 660 megawatt coal-fired power plant under construction on the dusty coast of western Java, Indonesia. The US$1 billion (S$1.38 billion) facility, majority-owned by Malaysia’s Genting Group, is set to be finished ahead of schedule next year — a rare success story as President Joko Widodo struggles to draw foreign direct investment (FDI) and develop much-needed infrastructure in South-east Asia’s largest economy.

A competition has been sparked between two Asian giants as Japan and China both attempt to court Indonesia in an effort to boost their influence in the region. Like a chess player, Japan appears to mirror any move made by China. Last Wednesday, for example, the Japanese government offered visiting Indonesian Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel an attractive proposal to build a bullet railway system that will connect Jakarta and Bandung.

The Central Java administration should address seriously the defrauding of two South Korean investors intending to set up garment and shoe factories in the province, otherwise its campaign to woo labor-intensive industries away from Jakarta and West Java, where minimum wages have risen substantially, will end in failure. Franky Sibarani, chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), revealed last week that the two investors were cheated in land-acquisition deals.