US$10 Million Investment Required For Indonesia
Tuesday, 18 April, 2006 | 15:38 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government estimated that Indonesia requires a US$5-10 million (RP90 billion) investment to accelerate the investment growth in Indonesia's outer islands.

According to the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi, this investment is for building the facilities and infrastructure in the outer islands which benefit Indonesia's tourism. The investment can be from domestic and foreign investors. “But this number is still a broad outline,” Freddy told the press, Monday (17/4).

He explained that by building the facilities and infrastructure, the respective central and regional governments will benefit, because so far the outer islands have not been reached by the central government. For example, there are islands whose ownership are lost, such as Sipadan Island and Ligitan Island which Malaysia claims are hers.

There are also islands that are not supervised such as Bidadari, West Flores, East Nusa Tenggara Islands, which are managed by foreign parties. “What we are worried about are the islands in Marore and Miangas, North Sulawesi, because there are only 20 thousand residents and many of them have moved to the Philippines.”

Currently Indonesia has 17,499 outer islands. From that number, only 7,349 islands have been named, and 67 islands directly border neighboring countries.

To support the investment, Freddy said, the government will give a tax holiday for 2-3 years. Besides that, during the permit process, the regional government will not be allowed to collect any tax or fees.

Endang Purwanti