Indonesia 4Q FDI Rises to $8.4 Billion As Encouraging Measures Pay Off

JAKARTA, Indonesia--Foreign direct investment in Indonesia continued to increase in the fourth quarter of 2017, indicating that a raft of encouraging measures Jakarta has introduced since late 2016 has started to pay off.

The official Investment Coordinating Board said Tuesday that actual FDI during the October-December period rose to $8.4 billion from $8.3 billion in the third quarter and from $7.5 billion a year earlier.

For the full year of 2017, actual FDI rose to $32.2 billion from $28.9 billion in 2016.

In order to encourage more FDI, President Joko Widodo has simplified the investment licensing process since late 2016, and the government is providing various tax incentives to make it easier to do business in the country.

Singapore was the biggest source of FDI for 2017 with $8.4 billion, Japan $5.0 billion, China $3.4 billion, Hong Kong $2.1 billion, and South Korea $2.0 billion.

The board, which is tasked to promote investment opportunities and issue investment licenses, said the mining sector received $4.4 billion in FDI in 2017; electricity, gas, and water received a combined $4.2 billion; basic metal, machinery and electronics received $3.8 billion; and chemicals and pharmaceuticals received $2.6 billion.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2018 05:37 ET (10:37 GMT)