Pharmaceutical company Bayer Indonesia is set to deepen its business roots in Indonesia. It will disburse Rp 500 billion (US$37.5 million) in investment up until 2019 for its factory in Cimanggis, Depok, West Java.

Bayer Indonesia president director Angel-Michael Evangelista said the Rp 500 billion investment would be used to upgrade and expand the company’s quality control laboratory and its effervescent drug technology.

“The latest batch of investment will be realized over the next two years until 2019 in order to increase the quality and the capacity of our factory. We want to fulfill worldwide standards and demands,” Evangelista said in a speech during Bayer Indonesia’s 60th anniversary celebration on Monday.

Evangelista added that the investment was a part of the company’s overall 1.6 trillion in investment since 2005.

“We have been in Indonesia for 60 years and we plan to stay here for 60 years more,” he said, expressing confidence over the pharmaceutical business climate in the country.

With an 18,000 square meter production site, Bayer’s Cimanggis factory is one of seven Bayer Consumer Health manufacturing centers located around the world. It currently employs 330 workers.

Some of the medicines Bayer produces include multivitamin effervescent tablets Redoxon and Calcium D Redoxon (CDR), analgesic drugs Aspirin and Saridon as well as anti-fungal cream Canesten.

This year, the factory is slated to export 75 percent of its products to 30 countries in Asia, Europe, America and Australia.

“This is a tenfold increase compared to 10 years ago when we only exported to three countries,” said Evangelista.

For the past three years, the company has recorded Rp 700 billion in exports, said Evangelista, declining to elaborate on the details.

Meanwhile, only 25 percent of Bayer products manufactured in Indonesia are distributed to the domestic market.

Globally, Bayer booked €46.8 billion ($55.7 billion) in sales in 2016, with a capital expenditure of €2.5 billion and €4.7 billion allocated for research and development.

Nevertheless, due to the high standards of the company, Bayer Indonesia still has to import 90 percent of its raw materials as local producers are not yet able to provide adequate materials.

“If we want to maintain and expand our export capabilities to markets and countries around the world, we must also make sure that we are cost-competitive in that regard,” said Evangelista.

The pharmaceutical industry is enjoying sizable growth in Indonesia, as shown by data from medical research firm IMS Health. In 2016, the value of the country’s pharmaceutical market increased by 7.49 percent to $5 billion.

The market grew strongly compared to growth rates in 2015 and 2014, which saw growth of 4.92 percent and 6.92 percent, respectively.

Data from the Industry Ministry shows that the industry contributes Rp 54.4 trillion to the national gross domestic product (GDP) and absorbs more than 40,000 workers.

Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who attended the ceremony, said he appreciated Bayer Indonesia’s expansion moves, which he believes will further improve Indonesia’s pharmaceutical industry in general.

“The pharmaceutical industry and pharmaceutical ingredients are some of the prime movers of the economy,” Airlangga said.

Among the regulations the current government has issued to help businesses in the sector includes presidential instruction No. 6/2016 on the acceleration of the development of the pharmaceutical industry and medical devices, and government regulation No. 9/2016 on tax allowance, which provides incentives for the domestic production of pharmaceutical ingredients.

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