From The World Economic Forum Coordinating Minister Airlangga Invites Investors To Invest In Indonesia: This Is A Golden Opportunity

JAKARTA – Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto was present at the World Economic Forum (WEF) agenda series in Davos, Switzerland this week. On this occasion, he invited foreign investors to invest in Indonesia.

According to Airlangga, Indonesia's economic growth continued to strengthen with a record of 5.01 percent year on year (yoy) in the first quarter of 2022. In addition, the controlled inflation rate and the sloping condition of the COVID-19 pandemic became strong capital to be able to raise bargaining power to the highest level.

"Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest economy in the world, and now is the golden moment to invest in Indonesia," he said in an official statement quoted Tuesday, May 24.

Airlangga added that the recovery situation was clearly visible from President Joko Widodo's directive which allowed people to remove masks in open spaces and was the first step in the transition from pandemic to endemic.

“We focus on issues of food, energy, and finance. This makes Indonesia also play an important role in overcoming major interrelated challenges, especially those triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict," he said.

Furthermore, Airlangga also revealed that this year Indonesia was carrying out the mandate of the G20 Presidency which made its role in the international world more central.

"We also want to convey that digitalization increased sharply during the pandemic, which was recorded in commercial transactions reaching more than 27 billion US dollars in 2021 and making Indonesia the 5th country in the world with the most number of start-ups, namely 2.300 entities," he said.

In addition, Indonesia has 370 million cellular connection users and 204 million internet users (74 percent of the total population).

As for the energy transition, Airlangga said that Indonesia is committed to realizing New Renewable Energy (EBT). To note, currently a prototype of a carbon tax for coal-fired power plants is being developed, as well as an affordable and sustainable financing model.

"One of the things that is important in this energy transition is how to prepare funding through a blended finance mechanism and develop a transition bond protocol as an opportunity to provide financing to companies that have a transition target to a green industry in the future," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Also present on the agenda at Davos were the Minister of Investment, Minister of Industry, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Deputy Minister of SOEs, Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chair B20, and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia.