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