Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Investment should aggressively attract foreign and domestic investment amid the pandemic, executive director of the Association of Indonesian Entrepreneurs Research Institute (Apindo), Agung Pambudi, has said.
"The Ministry of Investment should be aggressive to attract investment for job creation and Economic Value Added increase, in order to rise from the downturn caused by the pandemic," he advised in a statement released in Jakarta on Wednesday (July 21, 2021).
According to Pambudi, the implementation of the Omnibus Law will also have a crucial effect on national economic growth, especially in investment realization. The new law as well as vaccination efforts, which are aimed at creating herd immunity, will be key to economic acceleration during the pandemic, he said.
"Incoming investments will need time to be realized, for example, administration, infrastructure, and institutional matters. So, hopefully, the vaccine program will (help the nation) overcome the pandemic so that there will be additional real economic activities afterward," Pambudi elaborated.
Moreover, a number of industrial sectors that are the ministry's focus, such as export-oriented manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, infrastructure, and mining, will take a relatively long time to operationalize, he added.
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The Investment Ministry is expecting to encourage investment in the innovation and technology sectors since those sectors will be able to provide long-term added economic value, while improving the competency of national industries, he informed.
The ministry has successfully pulled in investment of US$350 million from one of Cargill's global food companies for the next three years, he pointed out.
The investment plan comprises a US$50-million business expansion and a $100-million corn processing plant in East Java that will be commercially operational by early 2022, he said.
Also, work on a $200-million palm oil refinery in Lampung has started and is targeted to be completed by the end of 2022.
"The ministry will encourage a number of efforts to more actively attract investors to Indonesia. Starting from facilitating access to licensing and banking to providing comprehensive services to investors until they start production," Pambudi said.
The ministry's efforts will be supported by incentives, such as tax holidays, tax allowances, exemptions on customs duties for machinery and raw materials imports, he added.
A super deduction tax will also be offered to investors who absorb more labor and organize vocational programs to push research and development.
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