Indonesia remains an attractive investment destination despite its economic difficulties as part of the global trend.

The financial and public debt crisis in the US and the EU, Indonesia ’s two key trade partners, has made great impact on this Southeast Asian country. The local rupiah has depreciated 17 percent since the beginning of the year, while inflation stood at a high 8.5 percent and unemployment at 6.2 percent in the third quarter.

At the same time, the country recorded a current account deficit of 6.26 billion USD in Q3 and the growth rate dropped to 5.62 percent, the lowest for many years.

However, chairman of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Mahendra Siregar said total investment jumped 23 percent year-on-year to top 100.5 trillion rupiah (8.9 billion USD) from July to September, a record figure for a quarter. He stressed that this is an important signal showing that Indonesia , amid the bleak global economic outlook, remains a major destination for investment.

Soaring investment in the third quarter has brought the total figure in the nine-month period to 293 trillion Rupiah, making the annual investment target of 390 trillion Rupiah more achievable.

BKPM hopes to secure 450 trillion Rupiah in investment in 2014, a 15 percent increase compared to this year.-VNA