Indonesia is still attractive: Keidanren

JAKARTA (JP): A Japanese business leader has hinted that Japanese investors are becoming more and more interested in doing businesses in China and India even though Indonesia's investment climate remains attractive.

Managing director of Keidanren (the Japanese Federation of Economic Organizations) Kazuo Nukazawa said in Bali over the weekend that the flow of Japanese investments into China is increasing substantially because its sponsors are interested in that country, which provides a huge market with its population of about one billion people.

Nukazawa was in Bali to address a four-day business conference organized by the Association of Indonesian Young Businessmen (Hipmi). The meeting ended on Saturday.

He said India, with its population of 800 million people, will also become one of Indonesia's main competitors in attracting foreign investments.

However, Indonesia does remain attractive for Japanese investors, he was quoted by Antara as saying.

A recent press report said that China replaced Indonesia in 1993 as the biggest Asian recipient of Japanese investment, absorbing some $1.7 billion. The figure was up 58 percent from a year earlier and accounted for 4.7 percent of Japan's total investment worldwide.

According to the Investment Coordinating Board, Japanese investment commitments approved by the Indonesian government in 1993 declined by 40.72 percent to US$895 million from $1.51 billion in 1992. This, however, still accounted for 19.8 percent of total investment in Indonesia last year. (05)