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ollowing the launch of its one-stop investment licensing services recently, the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has partnered with the National Encryption Agency (Lemsaneg) to improve data protection and security.

On Monday, BKPM announced its cooperation with the encryption agency that will provide the former with protection for its IT system to support the licensing services across Indonesia.

The two state institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which will ensure security for all data submitted by investors as the BKPM will see a potential increase in documents processing following the launch of the new service, known as PTSP.

'€œAt least five officers from Lemsaneg have been assigned to the Jakarta one-stop service office to start helping us. They will provide instruments for data security, such as network passwords,'€ BKPM head Franky Sibarani said after the MoU signing.

Lemsaneg head Maj. Gen. Djoko Setiadi said his institution'€™s main duty was to protect every IT system utilized by the BKPM in a bid to reduce potential threats from hacking and data leakage.

Franky said the cooperation with Lemsaneg was part of the board'€™s effort to provide easiness and transparency for investors when applying for investment permits.

According to Franky, the new service will allow investors to monitor the progress of their permit applications online. He said investors can evaluate whether the time of the licensing process follows the standard operating procedure set by the BKPM.

Franky said the new service produced 138 business permits as well as an integrated licensing service for five business sectors '€” electricity, industry, industrial zone, tourism and agriculture.

The Jakarta office currently employs 77 officers who would connect investors'€™ applications with 22 ministries and state institutions, he added.

'€œWe will continue our efforts to accelerate our service and simplify procedures for permits as well as review licenses that can be merged together,'€ Franky said.

Aside from easing the licensing process, Franky said the BKPM would also revoke 15,500 principal investment permits given to investors from 2007 to 2012.

Franky said 70 percent of the total number of permit holders were foreign investors, while the remaining 30 percent were domestic.

The board was prepared to revoke the licenses because the investors had not started their projects for years and failed to report their progress as they were confronted with complicated licensing process in various ministries, Franky said.

According to Franky, most of the investors failed to report the progress of their projects because '€œthey were frustrated for waiting for almost two years during the application process in some ministries, while applying for similar permits in BKPM would only take three days.'€

Another reason that has prompted the investors'€™ failure in continuing their projects is that they are facing internal problem in the management of their companies, he added.

For the first phase, Franky said the BKPM had sent warning letters on Jan. 13 to the investors who were required to give a response in 30 days; otherwise the board would repeal their permits.

'€œHowever, we will keep offering simplified procedures so that they want to extend their principal permits,'€ he said.

Recently, Franky said the BKPM already secured at least $74 billion (between Oct. 22 last year and Jan. 23 this year) in committed realized investments in the pipeline submitted by 46 companies.