Off the wire
• Xinjiang to ban tourists to glaciers  • Russia blames U.S. for bombings in Syrian Aleppo  • 4th Palestinian death caused by H1N1 virus  • Parliament approves Latvia' s new center-right coalition government  • Roundup: Pakistani stocks stay bearish, give up 32k-level  • Dumplings served 1,700 years ago in Xinjiang  • Prosecutor wants ex-Chadian president jailed for life  • Roundup: NATO to provide support to address refugee crisis in Europe  • Update: Greek Navy helicopter crashes in Aegean, three missing  • Nokia shows strong profitability in 2015  
You are here: 　 Home

Indonesia opens up more investment opportunities for foreigners

Xinhua, February 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Indonesian government has allowed bigger foreign ownership in industries from toll roads to cinemas in a bid to attract more investment from abroad into the Southeast Asia's biggest economy, top officials said on Thursday.

Indonesian Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said that foreign investors are allowed to have 100 percent investment in toll roads, cinemas, pharmacy, restaurants and cool storages.

"These policies aim to encourage our nation to move forward, to create new entrepreneurs, new innovators and to compete in global markets," Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo aims to attract more foreign investment in an effort to help finance huge infrastructure projects to prop up the country's economy, which he expects to reach 7 percent at the end of his five year term in 2019.

Nasution said that the government allowed participation of foreign investors in construction of extra high-voltage power plants with ownership of no more than 49 percent.

For the cinema industry, the government requires foreign investors to have 60 percent local films of the total movies screened daily, Head of Coordinating Investment Board Franky Sibarani said.

However, the government still bans sales of sea products from coral reefs in a bid to protect the sustainability of the nature, said Nasution.

President Widodo has issued a series of economic package stimulus since September, including deregulations and tax incentives, to lure foreign investment and accelerate the country's economy.

The country's economy picked up in the final quarter last year to 5.04 percent from 4.74 percent in the previous quarter as government spending for development countered weak export and consumption, according to the national statistic bureau.

The Indonesian government spent most of the development budget in the fourth quarter after sluggish spending of the budget in the first two quarters last year, according to the finance ministry.

Indonesia's exports have been hit by weakening global demand amid slowing down of the world's economy.

The government's policy to raise oil prices at the end of 2014 had discouraged people's purchasing power which eased annual inflation to 3.35 percent in 2015. Endit