Investment climate 'still the best in ASEAN'
Investment climate 'still the best in ASEAN'
JAKARTA (Antara): Indonesia's investment climate is still the best in ASEAN given its abundant natural resources, huge labor force and adequate infrastructure, the director of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Yoshi Suga, said yesterday.
"After visiting several industrial estates in Indonesia, I must encourage Japanese businessmen to invest more in the country," he said when visiting the MM2100 industrial zone in Cibitung, Bekasi.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The 30-year-old grouping is frequently described as the world's fastest-growing economy with an average annual growth of between 7 percent and 8 percent.
Suga's view was shared by diplomats from the United Kingdom, Canada and Austria who said Indonesia's economic policies were consistent because they continued to be marked by new deregulation packages.
The packages were obviously attractive to many foreign investors, they said.
Meanwhile, the chief of the promotions department of the Investment Coordinating Board, Sugihono Kadarisman, said that deregulation and bureaucratic reform would continue to be the main features of domestic economic policies.
"They are expected to boost our production of goods and our services," he said.
He said the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and the World Trade Organization would involve Indonesia in global economics.
On the construction of more industrial estates, Kadarisman said that land clearing sometimes posed a big problem.
Acknowledging the difficulty of clearing land for estates, West Java Deputy Governor HM Sampoerna said recently: "Local administrations, in line with existing regulations, are not allowed to take part in the clearing of land for the activities of private enterprises."
"We can only do so for government projects," he said.
Private enterprises must clear their land by themselves, he said, adding that existing regulations sometimes prompted land speculation.
But Sampoerna said that, with better coordination, the National Land Agency and related agencies could eliminate this problem.