Insight: Foreign direct investment is not coming to Indonesia — really?

Edimon Ginting
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PREMIUM

Manila / Mon, September 16, 2019 / 09:21 am

Insight: Foreign direct investment is not coming to Indonesia — really?

Regulatory framework for FDI: Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Wimboh Santoso (center) speaks at the first Next Indonesian Unicorn (NextICorn) Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, accompanied on stage by Investment Coordinating Board (BPKM) chairman Thomas Lembong (left) and Bank Indonesia’s head of Payment Systems Policy Onny Widanarko. Wimboh spoke on the regulatory framework for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the digital economy. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)

The economic topic receiving the most attention in the last few days has certainly been that of foreign direct investment (FDI) thanks to the World Bank, which brought this issue to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s attention. One of the key messages was that FDI is simply not coming to Indonesia. The evidence cited was that 33 investors have exited China since June due to the escalating trade war. Most shifted their investment to Vietnam and, crucially, none came to Indonesia. Since attracting FDI is one of President Jokowi’s priorities, his reaction to this was swift: All ministries involved in facilitating FDI had to address the problem fast. Intrigued by the news coverage, I did some online research on the issue. To my surprise, it barely hit the headlines in China and Vietnam, but there was a huge amount of coverage on President Jokowi’s reaction. ...