Bisnis.com,
JAKARTA—After having waited so long, this country finally has a large office
that is in charge of licensing investments in an integrated manner. This is an
achievement worth appreciating.
21 ministries/agencies
place their representatives – specifically, liaison officers – in the office
located in the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM). This office
consists of a front office and a back office.
Those who are located in
the front office are responsible for reception, licensing applications, and
consultation for investors. At the same time, they process applications made by
those who are assigned to the back office.
At present, the
officials who support the One-Stop Service are ready to serve in processing 134
licensing groups from 1,249 lines of business. This is, of course, good news.
As is well known, licensing has always been one of the main obstacles for making
investments in this country. Investors must go through a rambling licensing
process and dozens of offices before they can start a project or build a
factory.
To illustrate, it has been
said that petroleum drilling licensing requires one to go through 89 permit and
licensing procedures and takes many years.
Such involved licensing
certainly departs from the government’s efforts to boost economic growth in
this country. The Jokowi government and the People’s Representative Council
(DPR) have just set growth at 5.7% for this year. In fact, the President’s
target for economic growth over the next three years is 7%.
A vigorous effort and
hard work will be necessary to achieve such great growth. One key factor in
this is to boost investment. We remember how, after his inauguration, Jokowi
offered investment incentives to foreign investors in various international
forums.
Now, Jokowi has attended
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing, the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Myanmar, and the G20 summit in
Australia.
In these global forums,
in addition to being able to understand the pace and direction of global
economic development, one can also meet foreign investors and invite them to
come to Indonesia. And we can see how the President does this with great
passion.
Data from the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (KADIN) of Indonesia showed that the Indonesian
government received investment commitments of as much as US$27.4 billion, which
was obtained by offering investment projects to Chinese investors and
entrepreneurs during the 2014 APEC summit in Beijing.
In fact, there are 12
projects in mining, energy, and infrastructure that have been established as a
source of funding by the government. He also requested that the results of his
visits to these three countries be followed by the relevant minister so that
the discussions could continue until they have been realized in concrete terms.
We should not become
complacent bystanders when foreign investors are making such great commitments.
The important thing is to fix the internal problems that have been inhibiting
foreign investment.
Other than licensing
problems, foreign investors now complain about problems such as inadequate infrastructure,
the quality of bureaucracy, and rule of law. All of these items must be
addressed with attention to the following points.
First, we hope that this
one-stop service that has been unveiled can be optimized such that licensing
becomes more succinct not so laborious.
Second, in addition to
the various issues mentioned above, other item that should be of mutual concern
is the fact that the political system has recently become less conducive to investment.
The conflict between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) related to the nomination of Budi Gunawan as Chief of Police
has not ended. We hope that President Jokowi can provide proper leadership in reaching
a solution.
The political situation
of our country has become so full of conflict that it certainly does not
provide guests from foreign countries with any sense of comfort – especially when
those guests seek to bring in capital in the hope of receiving large gains.
There is no other option: they must be taken care of.
