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Ease of Doing Business? Indonesia Cancels $23B Worth Of Foreign Investment

From The Wall Street Journal
March 19, 2015

Indonesia likes to boast that foreign direct investment has hit record highs in recent years, but it could have attracted even more if the government had made it easier for investors to do business here.

Indonesia’s Investment Board said Thursday that it cancelled 6,541 licenses issued to foreign investors between 2007 and 2012 because difficulties they faced clearing land, getting permits from local governments to build or having environmental impact assessment plans approved prevented the projects from happening.

Among the projects that had their licenses revoked was a $5-billion refinery project funded by Middle-Eastern investors and a $800-million bauxite smelter project from a Chinese investor, said Franky Simbarani, chairman of the investment board, known as BKPM. He declined to name the investors.

In total, the planned investment for the revoked projects amounted to $23 billion, BKPM said. That’s just shy of the $28.62 billion in foreign investment Indonesia received for all of 2014.

For detailed story, click here.

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