TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Investment Ministry or Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has reportedly received an order from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to achieve a greater investment goal compared to 2021 under a lower budget allocation.

In the work meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission VI members in Jakarta, the President had allegedly requested the BKPM to achieve the 2022 investment realization goal of Rp1,100-1,200 trillion.

According to an Antaranews report, the ministry will be given an indicative Rp711.51 billion for 2022, which is a significant drop from the ministry’s 2021 budget of Rp930 billion.

“We’ll be honest. The President gave us a target of Rp900 trillion with a Rp930 billion budget. But once [the goal] is increased to Rp1,100-Rp1,200 trillion our budget gets reduced,” said BKPM head Bahlil Lahadalia. “Our budget was high when we were a board [BKPM] but was reduced as we became a ministry. I am perplexed by that.”

Lahadalia explains that the Investment Ministry will focus on many aspects, with one of the priorities in 2022 to increase the ease of doing business and hopefully rank higher than the current 72nd position. There will also be a development for the risk-based Online Single Submission (OSS) as an implementation of the Job Creation Law (UU Cipta Kerja). The BKPM will also create downstream natural resource investment roadmap.

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ANTARA