Invest in Indonesia?

Invest in Indonesia?

We are a foreign owned company (PMA) operating in Dompu, of
Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, in the production of cultured pearls
under the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

The company started operations in early 1997 and has now
become one of the biggest investments, amounting to trillions of
rupiah, in the Dompu district, and is considered to be a major
contribution to the welfare of the very resource-poor area of
Calabai, Dompu.

We employ over 23,000 full-time staff, 70 to 100 contract
workers and consistently donate to the local community.

We have observed many structural changes, primarily
decentralization, to the Indonesian government and their effects
on our administrative processes since the onset of our
operations.

Presently, our company is very concerned about the apparent
correlation between the significant investment our foreign
shareholders have made and the lack of support we receive from
relevant government authorities/ministries/departments (too many
departments to keep track of), and most alarmingly, the absolute
non-supportive role of the local police department to keep our
investment safe.

First, there seems to be a great confusion as to where the
authority lies within all government levels. We are a PMA
company, and are now being asked to pay ridiculous amounts of
money by our district government on things (permits, taxes, etc.)
that, in the past, we paid to Jakarta at a much smaller scale.

Second, and most important, is our security situation, which
has been declining severely in the last two years, and in light
of our most recent security threat, our company could soon be on
the verge of collapse if nothing changes in the attitude and
discipline of the local police department.

Given the overall situation of insecurity above, I appeal to
the Indonesian government, in this "Year of Foreign Investment"
as declared, to consider our case as another alarming sign that
the foreign investment climate will never improve if the mind-set
and attitude of the government doesn't change.

FRANCESCO BRUNO, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara