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Jokowi invites Germans to invest more in Indonesia
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inspects guards shortly after he arrived in Berlin for a one-day visit on Sunday evening local time. (Courtesy of the Presidential Office/Laily)
B
oasting about the ongoing Chinese railway project in Indonesia, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is trying to convince German investors to put more money into Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
At an Indonesian-German business forum in Berlin on Monday, Jokowi asserted that Indonesia was showing resilience in the face of global economic challenges, with the national economy growing at a surprisingly strong annual rate of 5.03 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015.
"I believe Indonesia already has a stable economy," he said in a press statement, quoting Asian Development Bank (ADB) data that the interest to invest in Indonesia was at the highest level in history.
According to him, infrastructure development and investment as two engines of economic growth had led to the economic stability, which Indonesia demonstrated with concrete results and breakthroughs.
Jokowi pointed to the construction of the high-speed railway project linking Jakarta to Bandung in cooperation with China. "China will build a factory in Indonesia that will not only produce, but also export the fast train to the whole of Southeast Asia," he said.
Jokowi also pledged to continue to reform Indonesia into an investment-friendly country. "I will continue to reform, I will continue to simplify licensing, I will make Indonesia's economy more open," he went on.
The business forum brought together investors and government officials from both countries to discuss the long-term investment outlook. Forty-two business leaders from various fields accompanied Jokowi on his visit.
In addition to boosting trade and investment, the completion of the Indonesian-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IE-CEPA)'s scoping paper was another focus of the visit.
During the day, Jokowi had meetings with a number of German CEOs, including of Meyer Werft, Ferrostaal, Bayer, Siemens, Daimler and Deutsche Bank.
Companies from the two countries signed cooperation agreements valued at a total of US$845.6 million, comprising cooperation between Aneka Tambang and Ferrostaal, Pelni with Meyer Werft, Pindad with Junggans Microtech, APRIL with Inava and PLN with Siemens. (ags)
