Will The One China Policy Hurt Taiwan's Investment In Indonesia? Here's BKPM's Response

JAKARTA - Director of Promotion Development of the Ministry of Investment/Investment Coordinator Agency (BKPM) Ricky Kusmayadi emphasized that the One China Policy will not hamper Indonesia's economic relations with Taiwan.

"I don't think this is an issue that bothers us because we are talking about economic cooperation, so the context is purely economic," he said in a webinar organized by The Habibie Center on Tuesday, September 7.

According to Ricky, it is very unethical to combine two different issues and hinder productive efforts.

"We cannot mix economic and investment measures with the issue of the One China Policy because it is very thick with political nuances," he said.

Ricky added that Taiwan is a fairly important trading partner for Indonesia. This can be seen from the increasing scale of trade between the two countries, especially for the electronics and computer product sectors.

"In fact, not only Indonesia can benefit from this cooperation, a number of ASEAN countries that have economic relations with Taiwan can also be helped. This means that Taiwan has a significant influence on ASEAN and takes the region to the next level," he explained.

On the same occasion, the Director of the ASEAN-Taiwan Study Center from the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research Kristy Tsun-Tzu Hsu expressed a similar opinion.

“Mixing things is something I really don't agree with, because economic matters are economics and politics is still politics. Because, if we are trapped in this condition, there will be more problems that will be faced," he said.

In an effort to overcome obstacles on the ground, the Taiwan government, called Kristy, has collaborated with many ASEAN countries.

“This step is realized by facilitating the improvement of the quality of human resources, increasing the use of technology in ASEAN. So I believe that if there are no problems that prevent us from working with anyone, including Indonesia, he said.

Moreover, continued Kristy, the world's situation and conditions have changed quite a bit in the last three years driven by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I invite all parties to redefine the meaning of the One China Policy, because world conditions are no longer the same as before. This makes us believe that there will be more parties who can cooperate with Taiwan, especially in terms of the economy, especially investment, manufacturing activities, and also trade," he explained.

For information, in the first semester of 2021 the value of Taiwan's investment in Indonesia is 200 million US dollars. This figure places Taiwan in the 15th rank as the country with the largest investment value in Indonesia.

As many as 65 percent of Taiwan's capital inflows into Indonesia chose to invest outside Java. While the remaining 35 percent is still concentrated on the island of Java.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's investment in Southeast Asia is mostly done in Vietnam. Followed by Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.