Bali remains attractive to investors: BI
Bali remains attractive to investors: BI
JAKARTA (JP): Bali, whose image has been smeared by social tension, retains local and international investors' trust thanks to its stability, Bank Indonesia has reported.
The trust is apparent in the foreign investment plans that the Balinese provincial government has approved over the past two years.
Their value jumped from US$275 million in 1998 to $543 million in 1999, the bank's report said as quoted by Antara news agency.
While the value of domestic investment rose from Rp 811 billion in 1998 to Rp 1.4 trillion last year, according to the report.
Rioting broke out in major cities in Bali last October when Megawati Soekarnoputri, chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) and highly popular in Bali, lost her presidential bid.
Predominantly Hindu Bali is seen as having potential religious and social conflicts as Balinese locals are engaged in tight competition with migrants.
Investor interest in Bali has been spurred by security in the tourist haven, as the island has yet to be affected by sectarian or separatist violence like in other areas of Indonesia, such as Aceh and Maluku.
Popular investments in Bali are in tourism, property and export-oriented small-scale industries.
The Bank Indonesia report said that $180 million of the $543 million proposed investment was in the hotel industry. The second largest planned investment, $178 million, was in export-oriented small-scale home industries.
The next major proposed investment was in trade ($71 million), agriculture, forestry and fishery ($27 million) and recreational facilities ($28 million).
Proposed domestic investment was mostly in hotel construction (Rp 946 billion), followed by small-scale industries (Rp 172 billion).
Tourism
In a related development, Pontjo Sutowo, chairman of the Indonesian Board for Tourism Development, stressed the need for Bali and other tourist destinations across the country to intensify their promotion activities.
Pontjo said last week in Kuta that the tourism sector had been hard hit by reports of violence in different parts of Indonesia. The incidents have tarnished Indonesia's image as a peaceful country, he added.
"The main problem facing tourism in Indonesia is the very negative image. Therefore we should do our best to restore the image to lure tourists back," he said.
Ponco was in Bali to sign a cooperation pact between the board and tourist businesses in Bali Village. (pan)