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Jokowi proposes exclusive German industrial area in C. Java
Germany invested $1.4 trillion in Indonesia in 2020, making it the fourth-largest European investor after the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (right) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a virtual meeting on Tuesday. (BPMI Setpres/Muchlis Jr.)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has offered to open, within the Batang Integrated Industrial Park in Central Java, an area designated for German companies as Indonesia seeks to woo new foreign investors.
Jokowi extended the offer to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a closed-door virtual meeting on Tuesday, a day after the two leaders opened the German-based Hannover Messe 2021 trade fair, in which Indonesia is a partner country.
“I am offering Germany the opportunity to develop a German industrial quarter in the Batang integrated industrial zone,” Jokowi said in a statement, without providing further details.
He urged Germany, a European industrial powerhouse, to increase industrial investments in Indonesia by building factories and by integrating Indonesia into its global supply chain. He also suggested forming a partnership to develop vocational schools in improving Indonesia’s human resources.
The Jokowi administration is on a campaign to get foreign companies to invest in and relocate to Indonesia as the country’s foreign direct investments (FDI) dropped by 2.4 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 412.8 trillion (US$28.24 billion) in 2020, according to Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) data.
The Batang industrial zone is among the government’s tools to attract such factories. The zone will sit on 4,368 hectares of land owned by state-owned plantation holding company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) IX in Gringsing district, Batang regency.
“We will gladly follow up on this matter together with the German business community. So far, there are no further details known,” a German Embassy spokesperson told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
