SEZ Secretary Gets MEDEF International To Increase French Investment In Indonesia

JAKARTA - Indonesia and France have agreed to establish strategic partnerships focused on five areas of cooperation, namely trade and investment, education, defense industry, socio-cultural, and handling the impact of climate change.

The realization of French investment in Indonesia in 2019 was recorded at 16.89 million US dollars for 255 projects. This figure increased significantly compared to the previous year's 13.10 million US dollars for 186 projects.

Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' records, there was a significant increase in French investment in Indonesia, which was 480 percent from USD 25 million in 2020 to USD 145 million in 2021.

In line with the increase in economic and investment cooperation, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, in this case, the Secretariat General of the National Council for Special Economic Zones (SEZ Secretariat) held a meeting with the Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF) International in Paris France.

This meeting aims to encourage French investment in Indonesia and promote the Indonesian SEZ to investors and business actors from France, as well as to explore cooperation between the Indonesian SEZ and the International MEDEF.

"The collaboration between the SEZ Secretariat and the International MEDEF has great potential to encourage investment in Indonesia, because the International MEDEF is a representation of French entrepreneurs, and members who also have large and medium-sized companies," said Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, as Plt. Secretary General of the KEK National Council, Susiwijono Moegiarso in his statement Tuesday, November 7.

The Indonesian delegation, led by the Sesmenko Perekonomian Susiwijono, was accepted by the Chairman of the France-Indonesia Business Council and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, M. Phillippe Louis-Dreyfus.

On this occasion, the SEZ Secretariat explained a number of investment opportunities in 20 SEZs that have been set by the Government, then about incentives and conveniences that French business actors can get if they invest in Indonesian SEZs.

There are at least nine French business actors and investment consultants who are actively discussing various problems and investment potentials in Indonesia, namely Alstom transportation system industry, DS Advocats law firm/investment consultant, Loreal beauty industry, cosmetics, health products, Naval Group industry in the deep technology and defense industry, Thales industry in the deep technology sector, Eiffage Infrastructure industri in the field of strategic infrastructure construction, Flying Whales - aircraft industry, Pernod Ricard beverage industry, and Montgomery Conseil industrial and business services consultants.

A number of company representatives who attended expressed their interest in the incentives and conveniences in the SEZ, as well as conveying plans to explore investment in the SEZ.

In addition, there are French business actors who have previously invested in Indonesia who submitted a request for Government support for various customs and tax problems in their current existing industry, then they also expressed interest in expanding investment in existing SEZs, given the number of incentives and conveniences offered.

Sesmenko hopes to continue to expand cooperation with the International MEDEF. "As much as possible we can expand relations to several scopes of cooperation, such as joint promotional events, technical cooperation, and others. We also want to show our commitment as the Government of Indonesia to support the development of SEZs by providing incentives, both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives," he concluded.