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s Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia stands to gain most from China’s One Belt One Road initiative, bankers and businesspeople say.

Sam Cheong Chwee Kin, managing director at United Overseas Bank (UOB), said Indonesia had been attracting different types of foreign direct investment (FDI), but its big population of 250 million and its government’s determination to build infrastructure were the jewels that attracted Chinese investors.

“Whenever I do a road show in China, many people ask about Indonesia, because it is such a big, attractive destination. However, many of them are also unfamiliar with the country in terms of policies, so that could be a challenge,” he said at a recent press briefing.

As Chinese firms traditionally sought to expand their manufacturing base and value chain, they were sounding out opportunities in industrial parks and the energy sector in Indonesia, Cheong said.

The Chinese government introduced the ambitious Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road — popularly known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative — in 2013 to build connectivity of trade and investment from China across Asia to Europe and Africa.

The initiative covers more than 60 countries that represent 60 percent of the global population, 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and about 75 percent of the world’s energy resources.

The initiative marks a strategic shift in China’s foreign policy, prioritizing its relationship with countries in its immediate neighborhood, particularly in Southeast Asia, where Chinese investment is predicted to reach US$185 billion by 2030, marking an increase of more than 13 percent since 2003.

UOB senior economist Suan Teck Kin attributed the importance of Indonesia opening up to infrastructure investment to the fact that Southeast Asia had a young population that would continue to increase until 2065, with rising income per capita that would make the region the world’s fourth largest economic block by 2030.

China’s population, on the other hand, is ageing and will decrease by 2030. That has prompted the East Asian country to massively expand to Southeast Asia, which is characterized by a large workforce and ongoing urbanization.

“In the next 15 years, Indonesia will need funds six times more to build infrastructure compared to other ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries,” he said.

Teck Kin pointed out that Indonesia was actually ahead of the game in terms of attracting FDIs compared to other ASEAN countries as shown through the amount of funds coming in the past few years.

Indonesia attracted between $17 billion and $22 billion per year in FDI from 2013 to 2015, while Vietnam only obtained $9 billion to $11 billion and Malaysia between $11 billion and $12 billion, according to UOB data.

However, homework is piling up for Indonesia in its competition with ASEAN neighbors, particularly Vietnam, which has eased business procedures and benefits from its geographical proximity to China.

“The [Indonesian] government is talking about bureaucracy and improving the ease of doing business. Wages in Indonesia are still quite competitive compared to Vietnam, but at the same time, if you look at other things, like productivity, Vietnam is actually better, because it trains a lot of engineers,” he said.

Meanwhile, businesspeople say they expect the government to continue to support domestic industries.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said the government could offer incentives for import substitution activities to reduce dependence on imported raw materials and develop domestic supply chains.