How successful is the current administration in enhancing Indonesia’s attractiveness? and are these policy changes durable?

The President is pushing not only talk, but results. Because they were under pressure to show results as the economy was slowed, we had some difficulties accessing them and in the first part of this legislation period were forced to be “reactive”. But the government is now conducting open forums and has invited both chambers and ambassadors together with ministries of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Communication and information and State-Owned Enterprises.

“I think the key players have the right intentions for foreign investments in Indonesia to foster more growth.”

Indonesia traditionally looks more to the US than to Europe, do you see this changing in the future with the US looking more inwards?

I would agree with that, but the US will of course remain an important trade partner and they do already have a lot of investments here. But there is an opportunity for Europe to take more space: here we are also optimistic about the EU Indonesia trade agreement.

We we hope this will happen within a year. As a chamber, we see there is more interest from Europe in Indonesia, with more business delegates coming. But the question is how to move from interest to investment.

Speaking of interest, what would you say has triggered this interest?

I would say it is the combination of the mentioned factors: the openness and willingness which we have seen lately. Of course, many companies want to be looking at the largest growing countries, and find new opportunities. Another thing that can trigger interest are the major reforms happening, such as the energy reform. The renewable agenda is ambitious and a positive change, set to open opportunities for European investors with experience in that area.

What would you describe as an example of your chamber achieving something as the Chamber working with the Government?

We both want to see results, and the government listens. I don’t want to take the credit for our work, because it’s a combined effort, we are working with other chambers on common issues: manpower being a good example, there were some regulations which were hindering us, so we joined forces with other chambers, even from Korea. The government listened and we managed to get the regulations revoked in 3 months, which we could call a tangible achievement. We are now working more in collaboration across stakeholders for us to offer input at an earlier stage.

Another area we have been successfully working together is within the area of transport logistics. Initially there were restrictions on where foreign logistic companies could operate, but this clause has also been removed through lobbying.

Would you say that your membership numbers are growing?

No, but we are able to sustain the same level, which is positive, as the number of foreigners with working permits has gone down dramatically.

Six years ago, it was more than 100,000 and has since then gone down to about 50,000. If you take that into consideration we are doing a good job. Previously you had to be a member of a local chamber to be member in Eurocham. The reason for this was also that we do different work than classic country chambers, such as doing research for a specific company with a specific problem. But we are now also looking to be more flexible in terms of membership.

On the other side, when Indonesians are looking at Europe, what kind of investments, what kind of areas are they interested in?

A large amount of investment is coming to the palm oil industry. If Indonesia can make palm oil production sustainable Europe will be forthcoming in terms of imports. What Indonesia has recently realised is that being part of the international supply chain is very important. This is a new perspective which will help companies here export goods further.

What I would put here would be your personal advice, to CEOs looking at Indonesia to invest?

What I’d like to say is that you need to have patience and a mindset for long term thinking. To give the example of TetraPak, which has been in Indonesia for 45 years. The first fifteen years was focussed on investments and people. There will be bumps in the road, but your planning cannot be for the short term, you must be sure to capture growth and be patient. It also depends on selecting the right business sectors, working with the local realities and not relying on your global strength.