Govt set to open up new sectors to foreigners
Govt set to open up new sectors to foreigners
JAKARTA (JP): The government said on Thursday it would review
the negative investment list, which catalogs business sectors
barred to foreign investors, in an effort to provide wider
investment opportunities.
State Minister of Investment and State Enterprises Development
Rozy Munir said on Thursday his office proposed to reduce the
list of sectors from 16 to seven.
He declined to disclose the sectors.
"I can't tell you now, wait until the President has his say on
this. But one thing for sure is that business sectors related to
explosive production are still closed to foreign investment," he
said on the sidelines of a seminar on trade and investment.
The last negative investment list was issued in 1995 and it
has not been revised since.
Sectors closed to capital investment wholly owned by foreign
citizens or legal entities include airlines, port construction
and operation, waterworks construction and operation, atomic
energy, public railways, shipping and telecommunications.
Sectors closed to capital investment with partial foreign
ownership include businesses which support domestic trade, local
shipping, the operation of movie theaters, private television and
radio broadcasting services, retail trade and taxi and bus
transportation.
Sectors closed to foreign capital investment unless certain
requirements are met include aircraft equipment and accessories,
alcoholic beverages, ethyl alcohol outside of technical grades,
explosives, fireworks, the manufacturing of powdered or condensed
milk except when integrated with cattle breeding, the printing of
valuable paper such as Bank Indonesia securities, duty stamps,
passports or postage stamps, producing ordinary plywood except in
Irian Jaya, and operating sawmills except in Irian Jaya.
A number of sectors are absolutely closed to foreign capital
investment, including operation of casinos or gambling houses,
the veneer industry, the processing of finished and semifinished
products from mangrove wood, the pulp industry and sulfide
processing, the processing of dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane
(DDT) and dieldrin and chloradane, the utilization and
exploitation of sponges and the chlorofluorocarbon industry.
Several sectors on the list have already opened up to foreign
investment. For example, the government has allowed foreign
investors to participate in operating seaports and managing
drinking water systems as part of its privatization program.
(cst)