Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said handling COVID-19 was one of the considerations for investors to continue investing in Indonesia.
According to Luhut, the challenges faced by Indonesia in handling the COVID-19 pandemic are indeed quite heavy, starting from the availability of medicines, oxygen, hospitals to health workers.
However, the government has confirmed that it will continue to try to overcome the pandemic in stages.
"This is a challenge for us so that in attracting investors going forward, I think the COVID-19 condition needs to be a reference so that they (investors) believe that we handle it well," he said at the 2021 Investor Daily Summit which was monitored virtual from Jakarta, Wednesday.
The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN) said that the current pandemic condition greatly affects investor confidence.
This is because the declining consumption in each case increases causing investors to reconsider their investment (wait and see).
"But if we handle COVID this is good, I think they are still confident to invest in Indonesia," he added.
Nevertheless, Luhut assessed that until now there has been no decline in investment interest, especially in a number of strategic industries in eastern Indonesia.
The government itself has prepared several strategic industrial areas such as North Morowali, Obi Island, Tanah Kuning to Weda Bay which are mostly engaged in mineral downstreaming.
In addition, the government has also prepared various incentives such as fiscal incentives in the form of tax holidays, tax allowances, as well as free import duties on machinery and equipment imports.
On the other hand, the government is also preparing non-fiscal incentives in the form of development and management of electricity sources independently, infrastructure development assistance and licensing through a one-stop system.
"The government would like to convey that Indonesia is ready to welcome domestic and foreign investors under any circumstances in the midst of this global pandemic," he said.
Furthermore, Luhut said the Indonesian government had also ratified the Omnibus Law on the Job Creation Law and its derivative regulations to answer investors' doubts about the long and complicated licensing in Indonesia.
The spirit carried in the Omnibus Law is to simplify the business licensing process through a risk-based licensing method. Thus, low-risk sectors have more lax requirements than high-risk sectors.
"Through this simplification of business licensing, the government is optimistic that it will be able to improve Indonesia's investment climate so that it can attract more investors to Indonesia," he said.
