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.