President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has set out to attract more investment to Indonesia’s manufacturing sector and infrastructure projects. This includes creating a better business environment and drastically upgrading the country’s ports, roads, rail, and other support infrastructure. But upon taking office Jokowi inherited a revised investment law that further restricts foreign investment in some key sectors, and he confronts a bureaucracy that has long been notorious for red tape. We explore his government’s investment quest and challenges, by the numbers:

$500 billion

The amount of investment, both foreign and domestic, that Jokowi wants to attract to Indonesia over the next five years.

$76 billion

The amount a company must invest in one of Indonesia’s five high-priority manufacturing sectors to qualify for a generous tax holiday. The five sectors are machinery, telecommunications equipment, base metals, oil refining and petrochemicals, and renewable energy. In addition to committing this minimum amount, companies also need to deposit 10 percent of their total investments into an Indonesian bank in order to receive tax holidays for 5 to 10 years.

Lahendong geothermal power plant, Manado, Indonesia. Source: Asian Development Bank’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.

13.4%

The percentage by which foreign direct investment (FDI) grew from 2013 to 2014, down from 22 percent the previous year. Although some blamed the drop in investment on political uncertainty during a presidential election year, foreign investment did not recover to its previous level in the fourth quarter of 2014, after Jokowi took office.

4.5%

The share of foreign investment into Indonesia last year that came from the United States, according to the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), a government agency responsible for attracting and approving foreign investment projects. The United States was the sixth largest foreign investor in Indonesia with a total investment of $1.3 billion. Singapore was the largest investor, followed by Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

930

The number of days it takes to obtain a permit to build a power plant in Indonesia, according to Jokowi during a January speech in which he introduced a one-stop shop for investors to obtain licenses. The president said the length of time needed to issue an investment license is “unacceptable.” The one-stop shop is housed under BKPM and brings together representatives from 22 government agencies.

0

The amount of foreign ownership allowed in certain energy projects, including onshore drilling and oil and gas support services, as stipulated by a revised investment law passed in May 2014, before Jokowi came into office. These sectors previously allowed 95 percent foreign ownership. The government last year did, however, raise the foreign ownership limit in large power plant projects to 100 percent for investors who agree to form a public-private partnership with the government.