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Indonesia has what it takes to compete for investment: IFC
Favorable geographic and economic features, if utilized properly, can give Indonesia a competitive edge in the region as the country vies for investment at a time of global uncertainty, says the International Finance Corporation.
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Traffic flows along a Jakarta thoroughfare on July 26, 2022. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo )
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avorable geographic and economic features, if utilized properly, can give Indonesia a competitive edge in the region as the country vies for investment at a time of global uncertainty, says the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
IFC regional director for East Asia and the Pacific Kim-See Lim told The Jakarta Post on Monday that Indonesia was blessed with natural resources and a huge population, both of which were essential for industry to flourish.
The biggest opportunity for Indonesia now was electric vehicles, she said, pointing to the country’s ample nickel reserves to make lithium batteries, a huge market to be converted to electric vehicles, and many industrial parks.
“The car manufacturers can [rival those in] Thailand, because it's a pretty big automotive industry. Thailand doesn't have the nickel, raw materials for batteries, but you do, so the cars can be manufactured here and be more competitive,” Kim-See said.
Read also: Indonesia shines amid global gloom with forecast-beating GDP
The digital economy represented another big opportunity for Indonesia, she noted, as the country had a large market for tech companies to tap into, while its geography created demand for digital solutions to connect far-flung parts of the archipelago.
“There is a huge competitive advantage in Indonesia just by [virtue of the country’s] size,” Kim-See said, adding that there was an opportunity to have the next generation of tech entrepreneurs come from Indonesia.
