Minister: RI Outperforms Thailand In Automotive Market

Jakarta, Dec 6 (ANTARA) - Japanese investors prefer Indonesia to Thailand in making their investment in the electronics and automotive sectors because of its potential domestic market and high economic growth, a minister said. "Seeing the Japanese investors` desire, Thailand and Indonesia share good prospect but Indonesia`s domestic market is better than that of Thailand," Industry Minister MS Hidayat said here on Wednesday. He said that the big interest of Japanese investors to make their investment in Indonesia was supported by the readiness of the government to develop more infrastructures. "As long as the infrastructure development is carried out smoothly, Indonesia will become a good place for investment. This is the factor that is taken into account by investors," Hidayat said. Automotive principals like Mitsubishi Motors, according to Hidayat, are ready to make their investment following the plan of the government to issue a regulation on low cost and green cars at the end of this year. Director General for International Industrial Cooperation Agus Tjahyana said that Japanese investors did not question the rates of workers` wage in Indonesia. "So far, Japan is one of the biggest investors in Indonesia. The government continues to encourage Japanese small-scale industries to invest in Indonesia. Japanese investors do not complaint about workers` wages in Indonesia. They only think whether power supplies are enough," he added.