The Riau Islands province administration has set up a representative office in Japan to market the Batam, Bintan and Karimun (BKK) free-trade zone.
Hajime Kinoshita, former president director of PT National Panasonic Gobel Indonesia, has been appointed to lead the representative office in Osaka.
To reach a wider Japanese market, the administration signed a promotion agreement Friday with the country’s largest newspaper catering to the economic and manufacturing industry, the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.
Riau Islands Governor Ismeth Abdullah said his administration was targeting to attract 15 Japanese investors to the free-trade zone next year.
“We’re not just promoting Batam, but also Bintan and Karimun islands to the Japanese investors,” Ismeth, who is also chairman of the BKK Council, said after the signing ceremony.
“Some investors, in shipbuilding and electronics, have expressed interest.”
The governor said his administration had allocated Rp 300 million (US$30,000) from its 2009 provincial budget for the promotional cooperation with the newspaper.
He said the cooperation would later be evaluated to see if it was benefiting the BKK free-trade zone.
Ismeth said total current Japanese investment in Batam was US$3 billion from 30 companies.
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