H

aving introduced economic deregulation at a national level since September last year, the government has now shifted to removing local stumbling blocks to investment.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo annulled on Monday more than 3,000 bylaws it regarded as hindering investment and the implementation of development-related projects.

While making the announcement about the annulment of 3,143 bylaws, Jokowi set another ambitious target of improving Indonesia’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index from 109th at present to 40th.

However, questions remain as to whether Indonesia will able to portray itself as an investment-friendly country as it currently falls behind its regional counterparts in the index, such as Singapore, which tops the list, and Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, which stand at 18th, 49th and 90th place, respectively.

Indonesia recently failed to get a much sought after ratings upgrade from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) although the ratings agency did give credit to the government for its structural reforms, including redirecting costly energy subsidies into productive infrastructure spending as well as cutting red tape for investment.

The annulled 3,143 problematic bylaws hampered regional economic growth, led to red-tape and hindered investment and business licensing and were not in line with the central government’s policies, the President said.

“In facing more complex challenges [and more competitive rival countries], the central and regional administrations must unite and share the same vision and goal, as well as sharing the responsibilities,” Jokowi said.

Bylaws that complicated business licensing procedures because they required overlapping licenses for disruption ordinances and building permits for example, were also revoked.

“This also includes unnecessary fees,” said Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, who accompanied Jokowi at the press conference.

Those related to water-resources management were also on the list, a move that is in line with last year’s Constitutional Court ruling that revoked a law that had allowed the private sector to monopolize water resources.

However, it was not clear whether other bylaws deemed by many as problematic for businesses, including one requiring a certain percentage of profits for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and mandatory requirements for companies to hire local workers, were included in the list. The 3,143 bylaws were among more than 30,000 bylaws on the books across the country.

Tjahjo said the list of revoked bylaws did not cover controversial discriminatory bylaws, such as the one in Serang, Banten, which was in the spotlight recently for banning food vendors operating during daytime in the fasting month.