Indonesia's direct investment up 27.2 pct in first semester

• Source: Xinhua
• [10:37 July 08 2009]
• Comments

Indonesia's Investment Coordination Agency (BKPM) recorded increasing direct investment in the first semester of 2009 to 7.4 billion US dollars or up 27.2 percent compared to 5.8 billion dollars in the same period of last year.

The agency's chief M Lutfi said that the investment realization in the first six month of the year included 748 investment project, increased from 709 in the previous semester.

"This showed that we are still competitive. The biggest foreign investment was in telecommunication sector, followed by pharmacy, construction, metal and electronic industries," he said.

 According to the agency's data, realized investment in the first semester was able to add employees of 1,930 to 152,609 from 150,679 in the second semester of 2008.

The investment value in the first semester of this year was dominated by foreign investment that worth 5.4 billion US dollars in 614 projects and the rest was contributed by domestic investment worth 1.98 billion dollars in 134 projects.

The foreign investment in the semester was higher that the Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati's projection of 4.5 billion dollars and 1.7 billion dollar in the second semester.

Lutfi said that the Netherlands was the biggest investment country in Indonesia in the first semester, worth 1.1 billion dollars, followed by Singapore of 793 million dollars and South Korea of 471 million dollars.

Syahrial Loetan, the secretary in the State Ministry of National Development Planning, said that the investment jump in the first semester showed that business climate in Indonesia was better compared to its counterparts amidst the global financial crisis.

The business climate was supported by conducive political situation ahead of presidential election on July 8 and the absence of terrorism threats like previous years. The situation provided positive perception over the country's investment climate.