Indon infrastructure development sector offers huge potential

JAKARTA: Investment in Indonesia’s infrastructure development sector offers huge potential to boost bilateral trade and achieve the trade target of US$30 billion (US$1 = RM4.08), said Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia, Datuk Seri Zahrain Mahamed.

He said Malaysian companies should grab this opportunity to invest at a time when Indonesia aimed to further enhance its infrastructure development nationwide.

“This is also in line with the wish of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who said in 2016 that he wanted to double trade with Indonesia to US$30 billion,” he told Bernama yesterday.

Zahrain said in 2016, MalaysiaIndonesia trade volume stood at US$13.8 billion.

“For the period 2008 to 2016, Malaysia has invested about US$15 billion in Indonesia while Indonesia’s investment in Malaysia was about US$2.6 billion.”

“Up to October this year, bilateral trade was at US$18 billion, yet not achieving US$30 billion trading target, so Malaysian companies need to see the huge potential of infrastructure development in Indonesia, besides investing in the power supply. Property and plantation development sectors are also potentially huge,” he said.

Zahrain said Malaysian companies needed to see that Indonesia’s economy was huge with its population of 260 million and the growing middle class increase has the potential to offer various investment opportunities. — Bernama