Posted on 27 Mar 2015
The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) praised Japanese investors’ commitments to expand investment in the automotive sector in Indonesia.
“The commitments are for industrial expansions so that their exports can increase by three-fold to 600,000 units from the current 200,000. Moreover, expanded production capacities in the automotive sector can automatically bring their component industries to our country,” BKPM chairman Franky Sibarani said as quoted by Antara in a statement in Jakarta on Thursday.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said Toyota had expressed a new investment commitment worth around Rp 20 trillion (US$1.6 billion) in Indonesia, following his recent visit to the automotive company in Japan.
Apart from Toyota, another Japanese automotive company, Suzuki, also expressed a commitment to expand its investment by around $1 billion during the company representatives’ meeting with President Jokowi.
Responding to the commitments, Franky said the government was committed to paying close attention to obstacles facing investors. “These include commitments to facilitate the handling of cargo shipping in ports and the delivery of goods from factories to the ports,” he said.
Franky said the BKPM was committed to protecting the national component industry in a bid to attract more foreign industries to manufacture components that could not be locally produced or that used new technologies.
“The BKPM will coordinate with the Industry Ministry and national industrial associations to determine components that are open for foreign companies,” he said.
Based on the BKPM’s official data, during the period of 2010 to 2014, the amount of realized Japanese investments in Indonesia reached US$12.1 billion and employed more than 424,000 workers.
A half, or $6.3 billion, of the total investments were in the automotive sector, followed by $2.01 billion in the steel industry, $798 million in chemicals, $481 million in textiles and $444 million in the food industry.
