Singapore Could Be Indonesia's Largest Investing Country

Jakarta, Nov 5 (Antara) - Singapore could become the largest investing country in Indonesia this year, Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Andri Hadi said here on Wednesday. "Singapore could invest up to US$5 billion in Indonesia this year," Hadi told the news agency Antara. He said he had teamed up with the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and other relevant institutions to attract more investment from Singapore. There are five countries with the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country in 2013. The largest among the five countries was Japan with FDI reaching US$4.71 billion, followed by Singapore with FDI of US$4.67 billion, the United States US$2.4 billion, South Korea US$2.2 billion and Britain US$1.1 billion. Other countries invested a total of US$13.5 billion or 47.2 percent of the total new investment in 2013. By the third quarter of 2014 Singapore led with FDI totaling US$4.9 billion or 22.5 percent of the total FDI. Hadi said Singapore invested mainly in Jakarta and neighboring districts in the sectors of transportation, telecommunications, warehousing , manufacturing, food processing industry , plantation and electronics . Recently Hadi accompanies 40 business leaders from Singapore to study investment and business opportunities in Jakarta and Surabaya. Singaporean investors chose to invest in the country`s two largest cities as they have more adequate infrastructure and have large and modern seaports. By the third quarter of 2014, Singapore invested US$1.5 billion in Jakarta, US$492.3 million in Banten, US$411.7 million in East Java, US$320.9 million in East Kalimantan and US$300.4 million in South Sumatra. "Another group of business leaders from Singapore would visit Indonesia for the same purpose," Hadi said. He invited other provinces to come to Singapore to promote their business opportunities such as in food, energy and farm sectors by holding workshops and business discussions. East Java and Riau Islands provinces have accepted the invitation and South Sumatra is expected to follow, he said . Every year, the Indonesian embassy organizes exhibitions of Indonesian commodities including vegetables, fruits and other farm products in Singapore. Data from the embassy showed that in the first seven months of this year trade between Indonesia and Singapore was valued at US$42.9 billion , down 0.9 percent year-on-year. According to data from the Singapore Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI) in 2013, Indonesia was Singapore`s fourth largest trading partner after the United States, Malaysia and China with trade turnover of S$74.8 billion or 7.63 percent of its foreign trade of S$980.2 billion (US$780 billion). In the first seven months of 2014, Indonesia was still that country`s fourth largest trading partner after China, Malaysia and the United States with bilateral trade valued at S$42.99 billion or 7.38 percent of its total foreign trade of S$582.8 billion (US$468.1 billion.