Country not in the business of playing off China against US
Jakarta, Indonesia. AsiaTravel/Shutterstock
Rather than take sides in chilling Sino-US relations, Indonesia would rather focus on Japan’s outbound investments to the archipelago’s real estate sector, officials at the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) revealed this month.
The Japanese are mulling investments into real estate across a broad scope of market segments, according to Saribua Siahaan, BKPM’s Japan investment promotion official. “Some plan to carry out property development, particularly catering to expatriates, the middle class, and higher strata, while others are focusing on workers in industrial zones.”
He also let slip that the BKPM office in Jakarta is currently negotiating a joint venture between “a big Japanese group” and a local housing firm.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Jakarta earlier this month on a two-day state visit. Japan will reportedly be a partner in Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s one-million houses development program.
More: The ultimate guide to SE Asian real estate in 2016
BKPM chief Thomas Lembong recalled a meeting with representatives of Japan’s chamber of commerce in his own visit to Japan last month. “Japan has been an investor in Indonesia for decades now and has been the second- or the third-biggest investor in the country,” he said.
Japan’s decades-long investments in Indonesia will allow the Jakarta government to chart a trade policy independent of increasingly frayed relations between China and the new US administration led by President Donald Trump.
“The government does not want to concentrate on any single country, in terms of investment, and we are concerned about our national interests,” said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan.
“We do not want a situation to arise where in Indonesia has to take sides with the US or China. We are an independent country.”
Read next: Where does your country stand in a Trump presidency?
Source : property-report.com
Read more…Indonesia will see more diverse Japanese property investments this year
