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bout 300 Chinese investors have expressed strong interest in investing in infrastructure and environmentally friendly energy projects in Indonesia, which would help the country accelerate its economic growth in the future.

According to a press statement posted on the website of the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing, China, the investors saw Indonesia as an attractive investment destination for Chinese companies aiming to expand their business networks at the international level.

The deputy minister at the Public Works Ministry, Hemanto Dardak, said that investments from the Chinese companies would be vital for Indonesia to ramp up its economic growth through better infrastructure and availability of energy.

“With their experience, technologies and financial strength, investments from the Chinese companies will play a pivotal role in achieving the Indonesian government’s target of accelerating and expanding infrastructure development in the country,” he said in his opening remark at the Indonesia-China investment forum in Beijing on Wednesday.

Many Chinese giant companies like Sinohydro, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), Gezhouba, CITIC and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) joined the forum. The Indonesian Ambassador for China, Imron Cotan, urged China as one of Indonesia’s strategic partners to crank up its investment in the country particularly in infrastructure, transportation, manufacturing and energy sectors.

“The investments are expected to spur transfer of technology,” he said.

Chinese companies participating in the forum are said to be interested in building toll roads, rail ways, seaports and airports. Imron claimed that the investments would help the government improve connectivity between the islands in the country.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh revealed on Thursday that from 2010 to 2014, the country needed a total investment of Rp 1,480 trillion (US$172 billion) for the energy and mineral mining sector.

“The government can only contribute 80.7 trillion [5.45 percent] of the required amount, while state-owned enterprises are expected to invest Rp 383.8 trillion [25.92 percent],” he told a hearing session with House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing energy in Jakarta.

“The remaining amount of the required funds, around Rp 1,016 trillion, is expected to come from private investments.”

According to the ministry’s data, in the first four months of this year the ministry disbursed Rp 103.76 billion to build electricity infrastructure across the country. That amount was only 1.07 percent of the Rp 9.24 trillion allocated for capital expenditure in the power sector this year.

Darwin claimed that low disbursement of the allocated budget was due to several problems, citing that several projects were still arranging auctions for goods and services procurement, or were bogged down in time-consuming permit registration. “The budget spending will effectively start in the second half of 2011,” he said. This year, the ministry is allocated a total budget of Rp 9.66 trillion for electricity infrastructure, alternative and renewable energy in remote areas and gas distribution.