Prabowo Reveals Business Owners' Complaints About Complicated Investment Permits, Calls for Simplification

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto revealed that there are business owners who complain about the difficulty of obtaining investment permits.

Prabowo also requested that investment permitting for business owners be facilitated and not made more difficult.

“Facilitate permitting, don’t make it difficult. Business owners also complain; they want to work and invest, but sometimes they wait for permits for one year, two years,” said Prabowo at the Attorney General’s Office, Jakarta, on Wednesday (13/5/2026).

The Head of State also compared the domestic investment situation with that of neighbouring countries.

“In other countries, it’s two weeks. We must refer to neighbouring countries. If they can issue permits in two weeks, why do we take two years? Simplify the regulations,” he stated.

According to Prabowo, there is also a bureaucratic modus operandi where officials seek benefits from business owners who want to expedite investment permits.

“The tendency of regulations is an initiative from bureaucrats, to be frank, to seek opportunities. Some then ask for kickbacks, ask for money so that the permit can be expedited,” he said.

On this occasion, he also tasked State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi with conducting a study to establish a Deregulation Task Force.

“I ask the State Secretary to gather experts to form a special task force to accelerate deregulation. Simplify it, don’t make it difficult,” he revealed.

On the other hand, the government will continue to regulate naughty investors.

“Business owners must be assisted and supported. The naughty ones we will regulate, but those who are good, who really want to work, must be helped. There are also many foreign investors who complain that in Indonesia the permitting is very long and there are many, brothers,” he said.