Thuggery by Mass Organisations Among Factors Behind Rp 1,500 Trillion in Lost Investment
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Ministry of Investment and Downstream Industries/BKPM has revealed that investments worth Rp 1,500 trillion failed to enter Indonesia in 2024, owing in part to problems with licensing services, ease of doing business, and competitiveness.
Senior economist and founder of CReco Research Institute, Raden Pardede, said that beyond these various issues, thuggery by mass organisations (ormas) was also a significant impediment to investment last year, ultimately compelling the government to establish a Task Force for Handling Thuggery and Mass Organisations.
"As we all know, at that time there were also mass organisations that went too far. They constituted a disruption to business certainty," Raden said during CNBC Indonesia's Cuap Cuap Cuan programme, quoted on Thursday (3 July 2025).
"If there are threats like that, they spread quickly. In my view, that is absolutely unacceptable, because it concerns safety," he stressed.
The second problem, Raden continued, was licensing policy, which at one point was entirely centralised by the national government. This caused the process of risk-based environmental impact assessments (amdal) to become delayed.
"If everything is centralised, the question is whether they are capable of handling it all, including whether the amdal analysts can cope with all of it. Any consultant conducting an amdal analysis needs several months. So if there are thousands of them, that is what causes the bottleneck," Raden said.
For this reason, the current government under President Prabowo Subianto has responded to the various obstacles to investment by establishing several task forces, in addition to the Task Force for Handling Thuggery and Mass Organisations. For deregulation policy, the government formed the Task Force for Improving the Investment Climate and Accelerating Business Licensing.
"This time the task force has been made more comprehensive, meaning it does not only scrutinise regulations but also examines how business processes can be carried out. There is a complaints mechanism and monitoring and evaluation. Hopefully, if this runs for one to two years, we will begin to see results. Because this is a change of mindset," he said.
Senior economist and founder of CReco Research Institute, Raden Pardede, said that beyond these various issues, thuggery by mass organisations (ormas) was also a significant impediment to investment last year, ultimately compelling the government to establish a Task Force for Handling Thuggery and Mass Organisations.
"As we all know, at that time there were also mass organisations that went too far. They constituted a disruption to business certainty," Raden said during CNBC Indonesia's Cuap Cuap Cuan programme, quoted on Thursday (3 July 2025).
"If there are threats like that, they spread quickly. In my view, that is absolutely unacceptable, because it concerns safety," he stressed.
The second problem, Raden continued, was licensing policy, which at one point was entirely centralised by the national government. This caused the process of risk-based environmental impact assessments (amdal) to become delayed.
"If everything is centralised, the question is whether they are capable of handling it all, including whether the amdal analysts can cope with all of it. Any consultant conducting an amdal analysis needs several months. So if there are thousands of them, that is what causes the bottleneck," Raden said.
For this reason, the current government under President Prabowo Subianto has responded to the various obstacles to investment by establishing several task forces, in addition to the Task Force for Handling Thuggery and Mass Organisations. For deregulation policy, the government formed the Task Force for Improving the Investment Climate and Accelerating Business Licensing.
"This time the task force has been made more comprehensive, meaning it does not only scrutinise regulations but also examines how business processes can be carried out. There is a complaints mechanism and monitoring and evaluation. Hopefully, if this runs for one to two years, we will begin to see results. Because this is a change of mindset," he said.