VICE PRESIDENT SEEKS MORE INVESTMENT FROM SOUTH KOREA

Jakarta, 16 Dzul Qa’dah 1436/31 August 2015 (MINA) – Vice President Jusuf Kalla has met with South Korean prime minister and minister of trade and industry for talks focused on seeking more investment from South Korea.

Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Franky Sibarani said in a press statement received here on Friday that South Korea was one of the countries that has been the focus of the governments attention because its potential was still big, Antara News Agency reports as received by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

“South Korea is among the biggest five investor countries with the ratio of its investment realization reaching 64.51 percent, meaning most of South Korean investment plans are realized,” he said.

However the portion of South Korean investment in Indonesia was not as big as their investments in the other countries, he said.

“So, there is still a lot of South Korean investment potentials for grab by Indonesia, he said.

Sibarany expressed the hope that the visit and his meetings with several officials and business figures in that country could draw more investment from the country to Indonesia, especially in the energy and manufacturing sectors such as steel, electronic and petrochemical.

Quoting a Financial Times data he said that Indonesia is South Koreas seventh biggest investment destination country comprising 2.7 percent of that countrys total investment in the world.

Indonesia is still below China, the US, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Mexico and that is why Bkpm had been actively holding investment marketing activities in South Korea through its team of marketing officers for Singapore and South Korea and BKPM representatives in Seoul, he said.

“South Korean investment reaches 12 percent of total investment in ASEAN in the first semester of 2015 but indeed Indonesias position is still below Vietnam. This is a challenge for BKPM. I am optimistic realization of South Korean investment will increase, he said.

Based on BKPM data South Korean investment in Indonesia in the first semester of 2015 rose 20 percent to US$650 million.

Applications for principle permits in the first semester rose 39 percent to US$1.48 billion compared to the same period last year which was recorded at US$1.06 billion. (T/P010/R06)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)