Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has said the investment potential in the maritime sector has reached US$1.2 trillion.

Seeing this great potential and in line with the objective of realizing the vision of becoming an axis of the maritime world, Indonesia invited investors from Taiwan to a seminar on Prospects for Governance and Maritime Cooperation between Indonesia and Taiwan.

"The economic potential of the maritime sector, based on the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN), was approximately US$1.2 trillion and is still rising," the Director of Agribusiness Investment Planning and Natural Resources of BKPM, Hanung Harimba Rachman, stated here on Tuesday.

According to Hanung, the investment potential in the maritime sector was in various fields, ranging from logistics, oil and gas in the deep ocean, fish processing to shipbuilding and tourism.

Taiwan itself, he added, has been regularly investing in the country. Unfortunately, the maritime sector is still not in demand by investors from the region.

"While Taiwan has invested in many industrial fields such as metals, cement and electronic equipment, it still has not invested much in the maritime sector. So, this time, we are introducing the countrys potential for investment in this sector," he explained.

Hanung stressed that eliciting investment from Taiwan is important for Indonesia which is heading towards a new phase of industrialization.

"Taiwan is strong when it comes to industry and is also a strong technological power. So, it fits in well with our objectives because we want to develop our maritime technology base," he underscored.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the Indonesian Council on World Affairs (ICWA), Ibrahim Yusuf, underlined the potential of investment from Taiwan since it has huge capital to assist in the development in the country.

Taiwan itself, under the new administration of President Tsai Ing-wen, is following the "southbound" policy, as part of which the region is aggressively trying to diversify its investments in Southeast Asia.

"We want Indonesia to develop as a maritime country with a great potential. Also, Indonesia is trying to increase investments from abroad," he observed.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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