TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will carry out a series of working visit in a bid to boost investment from European countries. Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) head Franky Sibarani said that the potential of investment from European countries was not fully optimized yet.
Franky revealed that Europe’s investment realization over the last six years stood at Rp149.8 trillion (US$11 billion).
“President Joko Widodo’s visit is expected to boost investment from Europe,” he said in a press release on Friday, April 15, 2016.
Franky has been scheduled to visit four countries in Europe starting from Friday, April 15, 2016. The working visit is a part of series of Jokowi’s working visit with his ministers to Netherlands, UK, Germany and Belgium. President Jokowi will attend business forums in each country that he will visit.
According to him, Indonesia managed to raise Rp106.8 trillion (US$7.9 billion) of investment from the four countries in the period of 2010-2015. Among the four countries, Netherlands has been the country with the highest investment figure with Rp70 trillion (US$5.15 billion), followed by UK with Rp31 trillion (US$2.3 billion).
He viewed that the amount of investment raised within a six-year period was not optimal when compared to the amount of money invested by the four countries in the world. Data from FDI Times for the period of 2010-2015 revealed that Germany’s investment in Indonesia accounted for less than 1 percent.
“Germany’s outward investment stood at US$303 billion, while the country’s investment in Indonesia was only US$2.06 billion. Indonesia was ranked 26th in Germany’s investment destination countries,” Franky explained.
He hopes that President Jokowi’s visit to the four countries will generate business deals with companies interested in investing in Indonesia.
“Some business deals are potential and are expected to be finalized and sealed during President [Jokowi’s] visit,” Franky added.
The BKPM recorded an increase in investment commitment from European countries in January 2016 by Rp6.63 trillion (US$487.5 billion) or almost ten folds compared to the same period of last year at Rp670 billion (US$49.3 million). The increase in Europe’s investment commitment continued the positive trend in 2015, when it rose by 16 percent to Rp37.3 trillion (US$2.8 billion) from Rp32.2 trillion (US$2.4 billion) in the previous year.
AMIRULLAH
