Purbaya and Efforts to Clear Acute Bureaucratic Bottlenecks
Like an old song, investment issues in Indonesia revolve around drawn-out permitting, stalled coordination, and overlapping authorities between agencies.
The government’s efforts to remove investment barriers are now moving from administrative desks to cross-ministerial hearings. However, behind the acceleration of case resolutions, fundamental business climate problems are seen as not fully addressed.
Since its launch in December 2025, the complaints channel for business obstacles managed by the Task Force for Accelerating Strategic Government Programmes (Satgas P2SP) has received 112 reports from business actors. Of these, 58 complaints have been resolved as of early April 2026.
The majority of complaints, namely 53 reports, relate to business permitting. This fact shows that Indonesia’s classic investment problems still centre on bureaucratic aspects.
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa emphasised that the debottlenecking forum was formed to accelerate concrete improvements in the investment climate. “This task force was established to ensure the investment climate improves significantly and quickly,” Purbaya stated during the Debottlenecking Hearing at the Ministry of Finance office in Jakarta on Thursday (9/4/2026).
Several cases heard in the session show recurring patterns of obstacles. Like an old song, the issues are not far from drawn-out permitting, stalled coordination, and overlapping authorities between agencies, even within internal agencies.
One example is the problem faced by PT GBKEK Industri Park in developing the Galang Batang Special Economic Zone (KEK). The application for changing the forest area function, submitted since 2022, has yet to receive a decision despite recommendations from various parties.
In the hearing, Beni Raharjo, Director of Forest Area Planning, Changes, and Formation of the Ministry of Forestry, admitted there was a lack of coordination between directorates in his ministry. As a result, the request from GBKEK Industri Park has not been followed up.
Thus, this strategic project is held up merely due to an unending administrative process. In the hearing, Purbaya, who also serves as Deputy Head of Satgas P2SP, gave a two-week deadline for the issue to be resolved.
“Later, in two weeks, we will check if the land use permit has been issued or not. So, once decided, it will be continuously monitored. Because if not monitored, it won’t progress,” Purbaya said, reading the hearing’s decision, followed by a gavel strike.
Another case emerged in the logistics sector. PT Asinusa Putra Sekawan complained about the lack of a comprehensive regulatory framework for floating storage unit (FSU) and bunkering activities at Nipah Island Port. The regulatory uncertainty makes operations suboptimal and pressures competitiveness.
In the industrial sector, issues also arise in the process of Indonesian National Standard (SNI) certification and import permits for raw materials. Even for medical needs, such as producing anaesthetic gas, import permits for explosive materials in the form of ammonium nitrate are still stalled.
This series of cases illustrates that investment barriers are not due to a lack of interest, but rather convoluted bureaucratic processes.
Business circles have welcomed the debottlenecking channel positively. At least, business actors now have a pathway to voice obstacles without having to move from one agency to another.
Secretary General of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi), Anggawira, assessed that this mechanism helps break bureaucratic deadlocks. “This is far better than before when business actors had to move from one agency to another without certainty,” he said when contacted on Friday (10/4/2026).
However, Anggawira reminded that the Satgas should not stop at being a complaint collector. In general, there are five main problem models: too many and frequently changing regulations, sectoral egos between ministries, weak central-regional synchronisation, unintegrated permitting digitalisation, and a bureaucratic culture that does not provide time certainty.
“If these problems are not fixed, case resolutions will only be temporary. The Satgas only handles per case, but the root problems remain,” he said.
Indonesia’s challenges are growing as it must compete with other countries in the region. In the opening of the socialisation for adjusting Government Regulation Number 28 of 2025 on the Online Single Submission (OSS) system in Jakarta at the end of February 2026, Deputy Minister of Investment and Downstreaming Todotua Pasaribu stated that Vietnam is a magnet for investment in the ASEAN region.
According to him, the main difference between Vietnam and Indonesia lies in the investment cycle. In Vietnam, the process from commitment to realisation is relatively short. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the process can be long because it must go through various permitting stages.
“In our country, to be frank, this investment cycle is still relatively 4 to 5 years. One of the causes is permitting services that prevent investment realisation from being executed quickly,” Todotua said.
As a result, investments in Indonesia are often held up before they are truly realised. Yet, the contribution of investment greatly determines economic growth. Vietnam was able to record growth of around 8 percent in 2025. In the same period, Indonesia was still around 5 percent.
Regarding the work of Satgas P2SP, Head of Macroeconomics and Finance Centre at Indef, M Rizal Taufikurahman, urged the government to realise that investment barriers are not just technical permitting issues, but structural problems. What the government must do is untangle the knots, not just cut the queues.
“Therefore, Satgas P2SP should not only handle cases but also serve as an entry point for regulatory improvements,” he said. Rizal added that if hindering rules are found in hearings, the regulatory working group will follow up.
This step is expected to change the approach from merely resolving permit queues to improving the system. However