BI Invites Japanese Investors To Invest In Indonesia

Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) continues to encourage real economic contributions through the promotion of investment and trade in Indonesian products to global markets, including Japan.

BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said that investment and local products are believed to be able to be one of the factors driving the national economic recovery and is one of the focuses of BI's policies as a central bank.

In addition, BI also held a policy dialogue between BI and academics in Japan regarding the BI policy mix which is believed to be able to support economic recovery in Indonesia.

In addition, Perry invites potential investors in Japan to invest in Indonesia as well as emphasize five main factors that can be the basis for consideration for investing in Indonesia.

First, Indonesia's stable macroeconomics, high growth, ongoing structural reforms, accelerating economic and financial digitization, and developing an inclusive and sustainable economy.

This opportunity shows how closely the cooperation between Indonesia and Japan has been established for 65 years.

Perry said that the spirit and network of cooperation needed to be strengthened because the two countries faced the same global challenges.

This collaboration can be strengthened, one of which is by increasing Japanese investment in Indonesia.

As a tangible form of efforts to encourage an increase in Japanese investment in Indonesia, BI and BKPM facilitate business matching with investors for 10 Indonesian clean and clear (CnC) projects selected through the curation process to be offered to investors and corporations in Japan.

Perry said that the ten selected projects were engaged in the renewable energy, services, and health sectors.

"The high interest of Japanese investors in investing in Indonesia is shown by the signing of a letter of intent (LoI) to invest in a number of projects in Indonesia," he explained.

Perry hopes that this forum can concretely realize mutually beneficial cooperation in a sustainable manner between the two countries.

To support the investment climate in Indonesia, a discussion was also held discussing investment developments including the Indonesia-Japan local currency transaction (LCT) which will not only facilitate trade but also direct investment between the two countries.

In the discussion on LCT, namely the completion of bilateral transactions carried out by business actors in Indonesia and partner countries using local currencies.

In addition, Japan as Indonesia's main trading partner can optimize the use of LCT to reduce the dominance of certain currencies in trade and direct investment transactions between Indonesia and Japan.

The implementation of the LCT is believed to be useful, among others, to encourage the creation of a more efficient exchange rate exchange rate, deepening the financial market in local currencies, as well as other technical aspects such as ease of account opening and the rupiah remittance process in Japan.

So far, the LCT between Indonesia and Japan, which has been implemented since August 2020, continues to show positive developments and has the potential to continue to be developed, in line with the continued increase in trade transactions, which are dominated by the manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors of the two countries.