Special Economic Zones Achieve Investment Realization Of IDR 167.2 Trillion

Acting Secretary General of the National Council of SEZ Susiwijono Moegiarso. (Photo: Public Relations of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA - Indonesia has strong economic fundamentals. In the midst of the current global recession, several real consumer leaders and investments are still at an optimistic level.

In addition, the trade balance and transactions are currently still in surplus, coupled with foreign exchange reserves that remain high.

Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs as Plt. Secretary General of the National Council of SEZ Susiwijono Moegiarso said that the realization of investment in Special Economic Zones (KEK) had reached Rp 167.2 trillion.

"The twenty SEZs that operated managed to record success and contribute with cumulative investment achievements until the fourth quarter of 2023 amounting to Rp167.2 trillion and being able to open up new jobs as many as 113,038 people cumulatively," he said in his official statement, Wednesday, December 13.

Susiwijono hopes that the development of SEZs can support the Indonesian economy, as reflected in various positive SEZ achievements ranging from the implementation of downstreaming, investment realization, to the addition of the number of business actors and significant employment.

In addition, the Government believes that Indonesia, especially the Special Economic Zone (KEK), can become a destination for major investment in the world.

"With the strengthening of policies that apply in SEZs that provide certainty, clarity, and ease of policy implementation, it is hoped that it can improve the quality of the investment climate in SEZs and encourage more and more investors to enter the Indonesian SEZ, especially foreign investment," said Susiwijono.

One of them, the Tanjung Kelayang SEZ is a priority tourism destination with the best white sand beaches in the world.

As part of the Belitong UNESCO Global Geopark, the advantage of the Tanjung Kelayang SEZ includes accessibility because it is located on Belitung Island, which is geographically between Jakarta and Singapore and is targeted as a captive market target.

Until now, the Tanjung Kelayang SEZ has succeeded in attracting investment by presenting an international hotel network, namely the Sheraton Belitung Resort.

Prepared as a tourist area that has international standard facilities, the Tanjung Kelayang SEZ is expected to attract domestic and foreign tourists, by working on an environmental sustainability-based tourism business.

The Tanjung Kelayang SEZ has been chosen as one of the locations for holding the Ministerial Meeting for the development of G20 member countries.

In line with that, the Government is also developing local residential-based tourism housing facilities in the Tanjung Kelayang SEZ to encourage national tourism.

In the first quarter of 2023, Tanjung Kelayang was chosen as the location for two meetings that became part of the Chairship of Indonesia in ASEAN, namely the HLTF Economic Integration and the HLTF Foreign Affairs.

After that, this SEZ received a lot of coverage from the media with foreign tourist market targets such as Expot Living!, Jakarta NOW!, and Indonesia Expot.

And in July, Tanjung Kelayang became the venue for the ASEAN Blue Economy Forum, and was visited by several foreign national embassies such as the United States and Switzerland.