We hope they would not only see Indonesia as an exporter of raw materials but also as an attractive country for investment in value-added producing industries."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) hopes China will balance its huge volume of trade with Indonesia with more investments in priority sectors.

"We hope they will bring in more investments to Indonesia especially for infrastructure as they have the capacity for it," HIPMI general chairman Erwin Aksa said when explaining about the meeting between young entrepreneurs of ASEAN and China here on Wednesday.

He said additional investment in the infrastructure sector including logistical facilities is needed to increase efficiency in production and competitiveness of Indonesia`s domestic industrial products.

Other sector needing more investment from partners like China is processing industry, he said.

"So far we have been exporting a lot of natural resource-based products such as raw materials. We hope they would not only see Indonesia as an exporter of raw materials but also as an attractive country for investment in value-added producing industries," he said.

He said HIPMI had proposed to the government to give the incentive needed to attract Chinese investors to invest more capital in the country.

According to HIPMI records in 2010 Chinese investment in the country was only recorded at US$173 million or the 11th biggest.

Ideally, he said, as a country that supplies a lot of goods to Indonesia Chinese should minimally be the fifth biggest investor.

Chen Ziaodong, the deputy chairman of the China Youth Entrepreneurs Association, meanwhile said that businessmen in China had already seen investment opportunities in Indonesia.

"We have already had plans. We are now still observing sectors that are prospective. Palm oil imports from Indonesia have so far been quite huge so there are likely possibilities in the sector," he said.

Chen, who led the Chinese ten-member delegation to the third ASEAN-China Youth Entrepreneurs Association Forum, viewed increasing investment in Indonesia would also contribute a lot to increasing trade relations between the two countries.
(T.M035/H-YH/HAJM/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011