RI to encourage greater US investment: BKPM

JAKARTA. The Indonesian government through the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) will focus its attention on encouraging further US investment as a prime mover of the country’s economy in 2015.

“We will focus on drawing investment from the US as well as other economies, such as China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN member countries. A global economic projection has stated that Asia and the US will become prime movers of the world’s economy although China and Japan are still experiencing economic slowdown,” BKPM head Franky Sibarani said at a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said efforts to draw more investment from the US were crucial particularly after the world’s biggest economy fell off the top-five list of Indonesia’s biggest investors in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The US ranked sixth among foreign investors in Indonesia. Singapore came top with investment worth US$0.9 billion, followed by Malaysia ($0.8 billion), Japan ($0.7 billion), China ($0.5 billion) and South Korea ($0.4 billion).

“This is the first time the US has not been included in the country’s five biggest investors,” said Franky, adding that US investment in the fourth quarter of 2014 had declined significantly.

The board’s deputy head for investment implementation control, M. Azhar Lubis, said such a significant decline in US investment was probably because many of its projects had been realized.

A similar situation had also affected South Korea, which has realized the first stage of its Krakatau Posco steel firm investment project.