BKPM: Indonesia Continues to Attract FDIs Despite Global Slowdown

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) absorption in the first semester of 2015 has reached 31 percent - the highest figure observed across the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the Head of the Coordinating Board for Investments (BKPM), Franky Sibarani in Jakarta on Monday, August 31, 2015.

Franky said that according to information released by the Financial Times, the amount of FDI's flowing into Indonesia has reached US$13,66 billion, the highest number observed among ASEAN's ten members - with an absorbance rate of 31 percent.

According to Franky, the figure is much higher than Vietnam, who had only managed to absorp US$7.53 billion or 17 percent, while Malaysia managed to attract around US$7.01 billion, or 16 percent.

"This shows that despite the global economic slowdown, Indonesia remains an attractive investment destination - especially among ASEAN states," said Franky, who explained that the sum of all investment in the global market stood at US$311 billion, which reflects a 15 percent decrease from the figure observed in the first semester of 2014 where the sum of all global investment stood at US$369.5 billion.

That said, Franky also explained that FDI inflow into the Asia-Pacific region in the first semester of 2015 went up by 9.2 percent - amounting to US$137,3 billion, up from the figure observed in the first semester of 2014, where investments totalled ay US$125.8 billion.

"Asia-Pacific is the only region in the world that still somehow manages to post positive figures amid the slowdown," said Franky.According to Franky, the origins of incoming FDIs into ASEAN include China (17 percent), Japan (15 percent), Thailand (12 percent), South Korea (12 percent), Singapore (10 percent), the US (9 percent), Malaysia (3 percent), Germany (3 percent), Taiwan (2 percent), and Switzerland (2 percent).

ANTARANEWS