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)