Although Investment Realization Rises, President is Still Not Satisfied With Investment Permission Process

CME, Darmin Nasution accompanied by Head of (BKPM), Franky Sibarani delivered a press statement, at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, on Wednesday (16/9) afternoon.

Even though the realization of investment during the first semester of 2015 rose by 16.5 % compared to the same period last year, which increased from Rp 222.8 trillion to Rp 259 trillion, President Joko Widodo still thinks that so far, the procedure to obtain permit to invest in Indonesia is still not satisfying.

“For example on electricity sector, based on the data compiled by Investmen Coordinating Board (BKPM), President still remembers that electricity sector has 49 permits. After it is calculated, ittakes more than 2.5 years or 923 days. However, there is suggestion to simplify the permits by 25 permits with 250 days period of time,” said Coordinating Minister for the Economy (CME) Darmin Nasution to the journalists after the limited meeting on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), at the Presidential Office, Jakarta,on Wednesday (16/9) afternoon.

According to the Coordinating Minister, President Joko Widodo who was formerly a businessman compares his experiences when he wanted to invest in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). At that time, the permit application was finished in 1 hour, not days.

In Dubai, applicants only need to come into one room. The officers then asked for several documents which the applicants already knowearlier to bring the copies. After that, the documents are handed, then the applicants move toanother room to signa notarial instrument of the application.

“It is a major revolution and needs an electronic system. So, in general, perhaps the President is still not satisfied with the development of permission and requirements applied in our economy,” Darmin said.

The Coordinating Minister also said that the President in the limited meeting delivered that in doing business,based on theindicator of how to start business in several countries, Indonesia has slightly improved at the last several years, from rank 117 to 114 of 189 countries in 2015.

“Thus, there are a lot of things that need to be fixed and the understanding concepts regarding the permission in one institution seems to be different with other institutions. Probably, the permit originally is only one, but there are 7 different requirements, shortly the 7 requirements changed into another permits,”Darmin said.

Improvement moment

According to Darmin, President Joko Widodo explained that now is the moment to make some improvement eventhough the economyslows down, because Indonesia, in fact, has more advantages compared to other countries.

“What are they?Theyare: we have huge market, we have something that Singapore or any other countries does not have. Besides natural resources, the huge market has something to do with global economic condition that recently slows down, and it puts those who doing business at  disadvantage. Our advantage should be used to invite the investment,” Darmin said.

Therefore, the Coordinating Minister added that the one-stop integrated service (PTSP) is proposed to become electronic, so it does not need many parties to apply permission.

Secondly, all of the permissions do not need to be finished first before people can start to invest. “Temporary permit could at least be granted after the applicants knows the requirements that have to be completed, then they sign the commitment with collateral, for example. After they obtain temporary permit, they can start the business,” Darmin explained while mentioning that if we are worrying that applicants could not carry on the business or if they sell the permit, we can ask them to give collateral to the bank, so they will risk themselves if they are not serious.   (ES/Humas)(RAS/MMB/YM-Naster/Sy))