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| Foreign investment surges in Indonesia: official |
| 30-JUL-2010 Intellasia | AFP |
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| 30 Jul, 2010 - 7:10:00 AM |
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Foreign investment in Indonesia soared 46 percent in the first six months of the year, an official said Wednesday, as confidence in the country continued to grow after the global financial crisis.
Foreigners committed 71 trillion rupiah (7.88 billion dollars) in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, investment board chief Gita Wirjawan said.
A total of 92.9 trillion rupiah had been invested in the country in the six months to July, including money from local investors, he added.
"The increase showed investors' confidence in Indonesia's investment climate and its macroeconomic stability," Wirjawan was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires.
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| Workers at a construction site in Jakarta's busy Tanah Abang commercial centre in 2009. AFP |
For the April-June period alone, actual investment rose 56 percent from the previous corresponding period to 50.8 trillion rupiah.
Foreign direct investment during the three months increased 53 percent on-year to 35.6 trillion rupiah, while investment by domestic companies grew 63 percent.
Analysts said the data show government efforts to improve the domestic investment climate have been paying off.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to remove "bottlenecks" to investment to help the country post seven percent growth by the end of his final term in 2014, compared with 5.5 percent this year.
Investors regularly cite legal uncertainty, chronic corruption and poor infrastructure as obstacles to doing business in the mainly Muslim country of 240 million people.
The government has set a target of 160 trillion rupiah of actual investment for the full year, with 118.4 trillion rupiah expected from foreign investors.
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