Growing foreign investments

Growing foreign investments

Two-hundred and twenty nine foreign investment projects in
Indonesia, worth a total of US$15.6 billion, were approved during
the first four months of this year, representing an increase of
468 percent over the figure for the corresponding period in 1994.
As a result, Indonesia now ranks third among the most attractive
developing countries for foreign investors, after China and
Vietnam. This fact disproves claims that Indonesia is a high-risk
country for investments.

Naturally, we hope that realized foreign investment will
continue to grow in the future. We see foreign investment as a
very important instrument for acquiring technological control. A
problem arises because international competition is becoming more
and more technology-driven. At the same time, product and new
process development cycles are getting shorter and shorter.

Considering all this, we hope that foreign investments here
will not only comprise the relocation of obsolete technology, but
rather the establishment of modern industries that are capable of
bringing about an effective ripple effect of foreign technology.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta