“[The BKPM] is like a very well-oiled engine. Everything works well,” Meijer said during a discussion at the board’s office in Jakarta on Thursday.

The speedy service was provided by the BKPM through its three hour-permit service reserved for investors planning to invest 100 billion rupiah (US$7.5 million) in a project or start a business that could employ more than 1,000 workers in industrial estates.

In an effort to spur economic growth, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has instructed government officials to make an all-out effort to streamline the country’s notoriously difficult bureaucracy to attract investment into Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

The three-hour service is one of the new services offered by the BKPM to lure in investors.

The BKPM claimed that the new service, introduced in October last year, had been “successful” in attracting investors. According to its latest data, there are 59 firms, including Telkomtelstra, that have used the service, with a total investment value of 137.5 trillion rupiah.

Meijer, appointed last year to lead Telkomtelstra, was so impressed with the BKPM’s service that he recorded his experience on tape and shared it on his Twitter account @emjkt, which has over 47,000 followers.

Telkom-Telstra is a joint venture between state-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia and Australian telecommunications giant Telstra Corporation Limited. The venture was launched early last year with start-up capital of almost $10 million.

BKPM head of investment services Lestari Indah said the board would continue to innovate and introduce new schemes in order to boost Indonesia’s competitiveness. The BKPM this year aims for Rp 589 trillion in investment, a target that the board is confident it can achieve.

“We can no longer do ‘business as usual’ when we have such tough competition,” she said.

Local administrations have started to reform to complement the central government’s fast-paced policy.

Palembang Investment and One Stop Integrated Services Agency (BPM-PTSP) head Ratu Dewa, for example, said the South Sumatra city had introduced the seven-day service for 52 permits, including building permits. The agency had also designed a detailed map for investors seeking information on the city’s potential and its economic activity.

Palembang was among nine local governments recently congratulated by the BKPM for their excellent one-stop integrated services.

The government’s push for reform in bureaucracies, however, must be supported with proper capacity building, particularly at the local and regional administration level, which are struggling with human resources issues.

“With limited human resources capacity, many local administrations have actually found it hard to process and issue business permits within three days,” Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) analyst Bhima Yudhistira said recently.

Both local and foreign investors remain hopeful about the country’s business opportunities. The BKPM’s office in South Jakarta, for example, is always packed by businesspeople applying for business permits.

Thirty-two-year-old Suryo Pratama, who came to the office on Thursday to seek for permit for his goods transportation business, said although the BKPM’s services were now quicker, the same thing must be applied to other government institutions that issue supporting permits.

“A lack of coordination will bring the progress back to square one,” he said.

The report was based on interviews with members of the Malaysian Retailers Association on their retail sales performances.

Although a negative first quarter growth rate was expected, the results were below the industry expectation of a 4 per cent fall in sales, said the group.

“Consumers’ spending rose sharply during the last few weeks before the implementation of the GST from April 1, 2015.

“Consumers took advantage of the retail offers in anticipation of price increases after the implementation of the tax,” it said in the report.

It added that prices of retail goods and services had been increasing gradually since early this year, partly due to the weak ringgit.

This, it said, had further deteriorated the spending power of consumers.

“Retailers continued to depend on heavy discounts to attract consumers. As a result, their profits were eroded,” it said.

The report stated that all retail sub-sectors recorded declines in their businesses during the first quarter except the “other specialty retail stores” sub-sector.

The department store cum supermarket sub-sector recorded a negative growth rate of 7.3 per cent, suffering the worst performance among the retail sub-sectors for the quarter. The supermarket and hypermarket sub-sector also reported a weaker-than-expected growth of minus 4.2 per cent, its fourth conservative negative quarterly growth rate.

The group said members of the retailers’ association expected their businesses to return to the black during the second quarter ith an average growth rate of 9.9 per cent.

The estimated growth rates for the third and fourth quarters are 5.0 per cent and 5.5 per cent.

“The greatest challenge in 2016 for the retail industry is still consumer spending.

“After one year of implementing the GST, consumers are still holding back on spending.

“Further increases in the cost of living will worsen it,” the association said.

He said AirAsia had plans to further expand its businesses in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines but these countries disallow more than 50 per cent equity of foreign airline companies.

He proposed that the 10 Asean member countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, continue with their “open sky” |policy in a bid to establish an |”Asean brand” while exploring the possibility of setting up an Asean aviation secretariat to handle cross-border aviation company equity issues.

During a joint media interview at AirAsia’s office in KLIA2 today, Fernandes said airline companies used to be symbols of their respective home countries but given the fact that more and more airlines are partaking in this industry with enormous market potentials, all the regulations and protective policies would no longer be relevant.

Owing to equity restrictions, AirAsia is currently venturing into the aviation markets of Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and other countries through joint ventures with local partners.

“When telcos, banks and even airport management companies can be wholly owned by foreigners, I don’t see why the aviation industry cannot be liberalised due to some historical factors.

This 49 per cent equity ceiling requirement must be reviewed.”

Hindering progress

Fernandes admitted that AirAsia Group’s accounts had become overly complicated as a result of the equity structure, and that this had hindered its progress to step up investments in regional countries, in particular Indonesia.

He said he had met the prime minister of Thailand, deputy prime minister of Singapore, Indonesia’s finance minister as well as Malaysia’s international trade and industry minister Mustapa Mohamed, among others, and that no one had responded negatively over this matter.

He also said that a January report by World Economic Forum Global Agenda Councils showed that liberalisation of the aviation industry could bring increased job opportunities and promote the tourism industry.

When asked whether further liberalisation would open up AirAsia to more competitors in its home base Malaysia, Fernandes said AirAsia welcomes more regional airline companies to fly into the country.

“Cross-border flights have shrunk Asean. We need to have new mindset at a time the regional economy is slowing down.

“The tourism industry offers tremendous opportunities!” he said.

For the first time, UnionPay International cardholders will get extra discounts and offers at more than 100 merchants during the sale, under a new three-year partnership between the payment network and the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), organiser of the GSS.

The extension of the sale period to 10 weeks is to better cater to tourists from Asia-Pacific countries, including China, whose summer holidays fall in the June to August period, said SRA executive director Anthony Gan.

He added that the annual shopping festival, which ends on August 14, will still coincide with the school holidays in June and the regional peak travel season in July, as in previous years.

The changes to the shopping festival, now in its 23rd year, come amid weaker economic sentiment and challenging retail conditions such as high vacancy rates in malls, higher operating costs and lower retail revenue.

Singapore Polytechnic senior retail lecturer Sarah Lim said while the longer sale period will attract tourists, it may dilute the impact of the sale for locals.

Retailers must have a sufficiently varied assortment of products to last throughout the 10 weeks, she noted. “Otherwise locals will get tired of it and the sale will have no impact,” she said.

This year, Chinese payment firm UnionPay International will be the official card of the GSS, in place of MasterCard, which has been the official card for the last 12 years.

Gan said: “UnionPay is able to increase our reach into China, while we in turn will help UnionPay increase their market share locally.”

He added: “SRA, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and UnionPay are working together very closely within China to boost tourist arrivals to Singapore, and increase tourist spending here.”

The world’s largest card issuer, UnionPay has issued more than 5.4 billion cards globally, with close to nine million issued in South-east Asia as at March 31.

In Singapore, almost all ATMs and taxis and more than 80 per cent of merchants accept UnionPay cards. Four banks here issue UnionPay cards – Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, United Overseas Bank and DBS Bank, which launched a debit card with UnionPay last month.

According to STB figures, Chinese visitors spent S$2.54 billion (US$1.85 billion) here last year, making them the top spenders among Singapore’s visitor markets. Nearly half – 45 per cent – of the amount was spent on shopping.

The number of Chinese visitors to Singapore was 2.1 million last year, up 22 per cent from 2014’s 1.7 million. This means China tourists are ranked second after Indonesia, in terms of tourist arrivals.

The GSS stretches from Orchard Road to Marina Bay, Sentosa HarbourFront and the heartland. It includes online and physical stores, from fashion and dining to hotels and attractions.

Last year, shoppers shelled out a five-year high of US$2.12 billion using their MasterCard cards, with the growth fuelled mainly by tourists.

This year, people who shop at the GSS stand to win a record of more than S$200,000, with the SRA giving out S$100 each – in the form of a UnionPay prepaid card loaded with the amount – to five shoppers daily. Those who pay with UnionPay cards stand to win another Sing$500.

Shoppers also stand to win more than S$320,000 worth of prizes in the Singapore Press Holdings’ Shop & Win contest by spending at least S$30 in one receipt at any participating outlet. Two cars, a Subaru XV 1.6i-S and Nissan Sylphy 1.8L, are up for grabs.