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oreign direct investment in Indonesia rose 21.1 percent to Rp 43.1 trillion (US$5.04 billion) in the second quarter of this year from Rp 35.6 trillion in the same period last year, with South Korea becoming the fifth-largest investor during the period.

Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman Gita Wirjawan said on Thursday that the investment from Korean firms reached $199.1 million in 133 projects during the second quarter, representing 4.2 percent of total foreign investment in the period. The figure rose from $139.3 million in 109 projects in the first quarter this year.

“This is, among others, supported by investments from Posco, Hankook, Samsung and LG. Since the signing of Posco’s projects last year, around 200 South Korean firms have also come to BKPM,” he told reporters in a quarterly investment report press conference in Jakarta.

Posco Steel Corp is teaming up with state-owned steel producer PT Krakatau Steel Tbk. to build a plant in Cilegon, Banten, with an anticipated investment of $6 billion, while tire maker Hankook, the world’s seventh-largest tire maker, is constructing its seventh plant in Lippo Cikarang in Bekasi, West Java, at a cost of $353 million.

Gita said he believed Korea would maintain its position in the top-five foreign investors in overall investments this year as a number of substantial projects would be realized soon, including infrastructure and petrochemical ones.

Based on cumulative foreign investments, Korea is the sixth-largest foreign investor at present. According to BKPM, the total realized investment in Indonesia during the second quarter of this year was valued at Rp 62 trillion, up 22 percent from Rp 50.8 trillion in the same period last year.

Foreign direct investment with a 69.5 percent share of the total investment during the second quarter of this year came mostly from the top five foreign investors: Singapore ($771.4 million in 203 projects), the Netherlands ($634.3 million in 51 projects), the United States ($577 million in 47 projects), Japan ($389.8 million in 150 projects) and South Korea, Gita said.

Meanwhile, he said, domestic investment had reached Rp 18.9 trillion in the second quarter of this year, up 24.3 percent from Rp 15.2 trillion in the same period last year, comprising a contribution to total investments of 30.5 percent; a slight rise from 29.9 percent last year.

Gita said that foreign investment had started to shift from being concentrated on Java to outside Java. “Investment outside Java reached Rp 33.1 trillion, or 53.4 percent of the total investment in the second quarter this year, increasing from Rp 19.4 trillion, or 47.9 percent of the total investment in the same period last year,” he said.

However, Greater Jakarta was still ranked first in terms of domestic investment, with total investment reaching Rp 2.8 trillion (14.9 percent), followed by West Java with Rp 2.7 trillion (14.5 percent) and East Java with Rp 2.1 trillion (11.2 percent).