Balikpapan Trade Department Ready to Issue Business Permit Recommendations to Facilitate Retail Investment

The Balikpapan City Government through the Department of Trade is ensuring ease for retail business players who want to invest in the City of Beriman. The Secretary of the Department of Trade, Syafaruddin, emphasised that the recommendation letter will be issued as long as the entrepreneur complies with spatial planning rules and the distance requirements between businesses that apply. Entrepreneurs should not worry about difficulty in obtaining the recommendation letter. The Balikpapan City Government is easing for anyone who wants to invest, including in supermarket businesses. ‘So long as it is feasible from the spatial planning side for them to conduct the business activity, i.e., shop trade at a given location,’ said Syafaruddin, Secretary of the Department of Trade, on Tuesday (3/3/2026). In addition to spatial planning, there are distance requirements between businesses that are set forth in the regional regulations. The distance to similar activities, education, markets and other shops. ‘As long as these provisions are met, we will certainly issue the recommendation for approval,’ he said. This means each application received has two possibilities: approved or not approved. He stressed that, of course, the Department of Trade will not limit investment entering Balikpapan, including from retail business players. However it must comply with the rules so that business activities remain orderly and do not interfere with other activities. ‘We, as public servants, will serve as long as there is an application for service,’ he added. He added that currently there have been no business players submitting recommendations. Both individuals and corporate bodies can request the letter. The Department of Trade encourages Balikpapan’s business community to properly obtain this recommendation application. For now they are operating only with business licences from the Online Single Submission (OSS), while they arrange building permits that require various recommendations from the related OPD. ‘They should be obtaining the recommendation permit. In the meeting earlier it was discussed to expedite its processing,’ he closed. Moreover, this local regulation predated the retail store boom by quite a long time.