City promises better investment climate next year

City promises better investment climate next year

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an effort to attract more investment to the city, the
administration plans to revoke bylaws hindering development and
create a one-stop-shop investor service, Deputy Governor Fauzi
Bowo says.

The moves were highlighted after a World Bank study released
on Sunday put the nation at the bottom of an international list,
ranking its business climate as one of the worst in the world.

"We are planning to remove several bylaws which impede
investment," Fauzi said on Monday after a meeting with the City
Council to discuss the 2005 city development plan.

He did not specify the bylaws. The administration earlier
announced it was preparing a new bylaw to provide a one-stop
service for investors operating in the capital in an effort to
cut down on bureaucratic red tape.

"We must realize that we can't create job opportunities by
just relying on the city's potential," Fauzi said.

Any increase in investment would likely generate job
opportunities for the 560,000 people estimated to be unemployed
in the city.

Fauzi said the administration planned to provide more funds to
small- and medium-scale enterprises in the city. "We will also
establish a non-lending micro institution to help small- and
medium-scale enterprises obtain loans from banks."

The administration would prioritize investment in the service
sector in line with a plan to make Jakarta "a service city", he
said.

With relatively few natural resources, the service sector
provides a large contribution to the administration's revenue.

Despite the bleak outlook for Indonesia suggested in the World
Bank report, which ranks Indonesia in the bottom quartile of 145
nations in terms of the ease of doing business, Jakarta had
recorded promising growth in foreign investment during the past
three years, the administration said.

This year, the administration has approved a total of
US$864.50 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 288
projects.

The figure is an improvement on the level reached in 2001,
when FDI was measured at $609 million, however figures for 2002
and last year were not available.

The 10 biggest investing countries in Jakarta are Japan,
Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, the Netherlands, the
United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, South Korea and France.