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n an effort to create a more conducive climate for the e-commerce industry, the government plans to issue a set of regulations called the '€œe-commerce roadmap'€ in the next three to six months.

The roadmap will provide clear guidelines regarding logistics services, payment gateways and tax '€”among others '€” for the e-commerce industry, Coordinating Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said on Friday.

'€œOur e-commerce industry has been rapidly growing but we have not installed a proper regulatory framework yet,'€ he said after a closed door meeting with the Trade Minister and the Communications and Information Minister.

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said on the same occasion that despite growing exponentially, Indonesia'€™s e-commerce transaction volume was still much lower than that of China.

'€œLast year alone, the total value of e-commerce transactions in China was three times our state budget. Meanwhile, we recorded only US$12 billion in e-commerce transactions last year,'€ he said.

Indonesia'€™s revised state budget this year hit around Rp 2 quadrillion ($152 billion).

Rudiantara told reporters that while still lagging behind that of China, Indonesia'€™s e-commerce was forecast to grow to around $20 billion this year, requiring guidelines to make sure that the industry would keep growing.

'€œWe will, for example, discuss how online merchants should sign up in a marketplace '€” whether they can directly sign up or if they need to obtain certain certificates from us,'€ he went on.

Other issues, including the inclusion of e-commerce on the country'€™s negative investment list, payment methods and tax, would also be discussed, Rudiantara said.

Under Presidential Decree No. 39/2014, the government includes e-commerce among the industries closed to foreign investment, requiring e-commerce businesses to be wholly owned by local players.

The regulation initially aimed to boost the growth of local e-commerce players and prevent foreign players from taking advantage.

Acquisitions of key Indonesian e-commerce players have occurred over the last few years, such as that of dealkeren.com by US-based LivingSocial Inc. and Disdus by US-based Groupon.

The regulation, however, is deemed counterproductive by a number of e-commerce associations, who claim it hinders people from developing start-up businesses because of a lack of funds.

Sofyan said that his and the two other ministries would discuss all issues related to e-commerce business, including the inclusion of e-commerce on the negative investment list.

'€œWe will list all lingering issues in the industry to find out what are the most pressing issues that we need to address immediately,'€ he said.

With around 297 mobile phone subscriptions and 83.6 million Internet users, Indonesia is currently a hotbed for the e-commerce industry.

A surge of local e-commerce players have been trying to find ways to cash in on the country'€™s growing market.

Diversified conglomerate Lippo Group recently announced that it would invest $500 million to develop mataharimall.com, a website that will help sell products from the group'€™s fashion retail chain PT Matahari Department Store.