Batam ranked third among top investment destinations in Asia

Batam ranked third among top investment destinations in Asia

Amid numerous reports describing Indonesia as an unsuitable
place to invest, a leading consultant has ranked the industrial
island of Batam third among the top nine investment destinations
in South East Asian and Asian countries.

Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), in its latest
study made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, placed Batam
in third place with a score of 4.87 after Singapore and Malaysia
with scores of 2.28 and 4.62 respectively.

The study should bring consolation to the country, which has
been for years considered a pariah among foreign investors for
various reasons, including security problems, legal uncertainty
and political instability.

Indeed, PERC said, Batam outperformed Indonesia overall, which
only scored 7.52.

The score ranges from 0 to 10 with zero being the best grade
and 10 being the worst.

Other countries in the study were China, India, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Scoring is based on external variables, foreign investor
variables, physical infrastructure, the ease of doing business,
domestic social environment, quality of expatriate life,
political environment, natural environment, education and human
resources variables.

The study said Batam ranked second in foreign investor
variables, the ease of doing business, political environment and
institutional quality and accountability standards.

The most interesting thing is that Batam is only second to
Singapore as an investment place where the political environment
provides business certainty, according to PERC's study.

Ironically, political uncertainties have been often cited as a
problem that discourages investors from investing in Indonesia. -- JP