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