Indonesia: FDI grows by 14.6 percent in nine months

The foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia hit 228.3 trillion rupiah (18. 6 billion USD) in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 14.6 percent.
The foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia hit 228.3 trillionrupiah (18. 6 billion USD) in the first nine months of this year, ayear-on-year rise of 14.6 percent.

According to Chairman ofInvestment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Mahendra Siregar, domesticinvestment during the period grew by 21.6 percent to 114.4 trillionrupiah (9.36 billion USD), raising the country’s total investment to342.7 trillion rupiah (28 billion USD), up 16.8 percent.

That exceeds this year's investment target of a 15-percent growth, hesaid, adding that the board forecast the investment to scale up by 18percent next year.

He said that the country's efforts toimprove the quality of bureaucracy, which has been one of the bottlenecks in attracting international investors, have been on progressrecently.

The FDI attraction of the biggest economy in theregion has improved after Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Servicehiked its sovereign credit rating to investment grade in late 2011 andearly 2012, respectively.

The country's competitiveness rank hasjumped to 34 from 58, partly due to improvements on bureaucracy withsimpler investment licence application, according to the World EconomicForum (WEF).

Indonesia , with a population of over 238million and abundant natural resources, boasts a strong consumer demandand steady economic growth.

Its economy is expected to expand by 5.6 percent next year, higher than this year's projection of 5.2 to 5.3 percent.-VNA

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