The Investment Coordi-|nating Board (BKPM) says Indonesia remains attractive to foreign investors and is maintaining an optimistic investment outlook for next year, eyeing tourism as the key contributor to investment growth.
BKPM chief Thomas Lembong said recently that his office was confident that the realised investment target of 592 trillion rupiah (Bt1.6 trillion) would be met this year, so a larger goal could be set for 2017.
One of the major sectors expected to boost cash inflows was tourism as foreign investors had reportedly expressed the most interest in tapping into Indonesia’s underdeveloped yet promising tourism sector.
“Luckily, tourism shone in the eyes of several investors who came to Jakarta for the Forbes Global Conference,” he said.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, is seeking to |spur significant growth in the tourism industry in an attempt to lure 20 million tourists a year by 2019, nearly double the current figure of around 12 million per year.
To attract people, particularly those who only holiday on the world’s most visited island of Bali, to other scenic spots, the government is working on developing 10 other destinations, including Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Borobudur Temple in Central Java and Thousands Islands in Jakarta.
The World Bank’s latest Indonesia “Economic Quarterly Report” declared that tourism was a promising field that could generate significant private investment for the nation.
In the first half of this year, Indonesia received US$858.7 million (Bt30.6 billion) as investment poured into the industry.
Besides tourism, other areas that BKPM will rely on to raise investment are the basic |metal and petrochemical industries, both of which form the backbone of domestic industry, he said.
BKPM may roll out more measures to lure investment soon, but plans were still being discussed with the offices of coordinating ministers and the president.
“From the BKPM’s side, what we can do is sort out issues relating to regional administrations,” he said.

Investments being boosted
“I have already spoken to the Home Ministry, which holds power over the regional bodies, so that the BKPM’s technical requests can be fulfilled to boost investment in those areas.”
In the past two years, the investment body has launched several initiatives to improve its service to potential investors, most notably one-stop integrated service centres to ease the process of applying for a business permit.
Around 453 trillion rupiah in investment has been realised in Southeast Asia’s largest economy from January to September, up 13.4 per cent from 2015.
The figure consists of 295 trillion rupiah of foreign investment and 158 trillion rupiah in domestic investment, increases of 10.6 per cent and 18.8 per cent from the past year.
Another sector that can |help attract investment and |will be looked at after |the next year is the creative economy industry, which Creative Economy Agency chairman Triawan Munaf called an excellent contributor to Indonesia’s gross domestic product growth.
One aspect of the creative economy that will be focused on is the increasing number of cinemas in Indonesia.
“It remains a lucrative part |of the creative economy. The prevalence of cinemas boosts the film industry as well,” Triawan said.