The survey showed Indonesia is ahead of Singapore which is long considered as a trade and investment hub in the region.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) over 800 company leaders in Asia Pacific named Indonesia the second best trade and investment hub in the region after China.

Head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Franky Sibarani said the survey showed that business leaders in the region still have strong confidence in investment climate in Indonesia.

"The governments response is important as the confidence has to be managed properly mainly by providing information about the governments investment policy," Franky said.

The survey showed Indonesia is ahead of Singapore which is long considered as a trade and investment hub in the region.

Only 46 percent of the business leaders saying they would invest more in Singapore in the next 12 months, as against 52 percent planning to invest in Indonesia and 53 percent in China.

Franky described as significant the interest shown by the business leaders as capital inflows to the Asia Pacific region is already high.

"The survey said decline in foreign capital inflows to the Asia Pacific region is natural this year after peaking last year," he said.

The PWC survey also said that altogether 68 percent of new investment would flow to APEC countries leaving only 32 percent to other countries in the world.

Franky said the position of Indonesia as shown by the survey could serve to encourage the government to boost efforts to increase investment into the country.

"Vice President Jusuf Kala in the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) summit on Wednesday spoke about the responses of the Indonesian government to global change by launching deregulation measures to create more conducive investment climate in the country," he said.

Investment by other member countries of APEC dominate investment inflow to Indonesia, Franky said.

Based on BKPM data of investment realization , in the past five years APEC countries among 20 biggest investing countries, contributed 77.5 percent to total value of US$76 billion of foreign investment.

BKPM also recorded that investment from APEC countries has continued to increase.

Investment by other APEC countries in Indonesia in 2010, totaled US$9.2 billion , rising to US$10.5 billion in 2011 and to US$12.8 billion in 2012, to US$16.1 billion in 2013.

In 2014, the investment fell slightly to US$15.1 billion .

In the first nine months of 2015, the investment reached US$11.9 billion.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2015