SBY woos OZ businesses to invest in Indonesia

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 03/12/2010 10:02 AM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono concluded his three-day visit to Australia on Thursday by calling on Australia’s business leaders to invest in Indonesia, promising “tremendous returns” on every investment.

Yudhoyono and his entourage of ministers and governors left Australia at around noon local time and are expected to arrive in Papua New Guinea for a bilateral summit at 4 p.m. local time. The President is scheduled to arrive back in Jakarta at noon Friday.

Speaking in front of business leaders in Sydney, the President said Australian businesspeople were welcome across a number of investment fields, including energy sources, agriculture and infrastructure.

“We have the Asia Pacific region’s largest proven natural gas reserves. We have one of the world’s largest thermal coal resources,” Yudhoyono said in a speech, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

In agribusiness, Yudhoyono urged business leaders to take note that Indonesia was the world’s largest exporter of cocoa and palm oil, and was blessed with fertile volcanic soil suitable for intensive agriculture.

”Australian agribusiness leaders and food manufacturers, take note: Indonesia’s food processing industry alone has grown an average of 15 percent per annum in recent years.”

About 400 Australian companies operate in Indonesia, the largest economy in southeast Asia, including those in the mining, construction, banking, transport and food industries. Australia is Indonesia’s 12th-largest investor, excluding oil and gas, Yudhoyono said, and “this is a statistic we can improve.”

The leading investors in Indonesia are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia’s neighbors in Southeast Asia.

“Then there is our population of 235 million people. Because of our immense domestic market and the certified fact that the Indonesian consumer is the most confident in the world, the Indonesian economy came out as Asia’s third best performer, after China and India, in the midst of the global crisis last year,” he said.

He said 50 percent of Indonesia’s US$550 billion economy was driven by consumption, adding that Indonesia’s retail sales are expected to top $74 billion by 2013.

Executive director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Rizal Sukma, said in Jakarta that Yudhoyono’s visit to Australia was a success, given the warm welcome of the Australian government, parliament members and the business community.

“But we should see how the visit encourages people-to-people contact in the coming years. The question is whether both leaders can lay the foundations for lasting good relations with Australia despite the leaders of both countries,” he said.

Yudhoyono addressed the Australian parliament, who gave him a standing ovation, Wednesday, making him only the fifth head of state to receive such an invitation in Australia’s history.

Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd agreed to intensify cooperation in handling problems related to boat people and speed up the process of relocating asylum seekers.