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Tag: Joko Widodo

  • Indonesia Falls in 2019 Ease of Doing Business Ranking

    Indonesia Falls in 2019 Ease of Doing Business Ranking

    If President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo wants to see Indonesia join the top 40 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking under his watch, he should make sure he wins re-election next year. Indonesia slipped one place to 73rd, behind Greece, the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, in the 2019 Ease of Doing Business report, released late on Wednesday. The president has set a target for the country to be in the top 40 by next year, but his second term will be decided in April, while the next report would not be out until next November.

    While Indonesia has made considerable progress in reforming the regulatory environment for businesses since Jokowi took office in 2014, Wednesday’s report reveals the stark realities of the country’s limited capacity to continue with these reforms.

    The country scored 67.96 out of 100 in the report’s aggregate measurement, up by only 1.46 points from last year. Slovenia, a Central European nation of only 2 million people and a $49 billion economy, sits in the coveted 40th place with an overall score of 75.61.

    Indonesia, for one, issued new rules that make starting a business, registering property and obtaining credit, easier for businesses and make it cheaper for them to get electricity. But reform stagnated in areas such as obtaining construction permits, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvencies.

    These bottlenecks allow economies like China, Kenya and Kyrgyzstan to overtake Indonesia. China made a leap to 46thplace in this year’s report, from 78th last year. Kenya moved up 19 places to 61st, while Kyrgyzstan went up seven places to 70th.

    Still, the report highlights Indonesia’s success in reforming its judiciary system and making the country a case study for others to emulate. The Supreme Court introduced training programs in 2003 for new and experienced judges, as well as special training for judges presiding over more specialized cases, such as those involving commercial or maritime disputes.

    “Indonesia’s efforts to train judges following judicial reforms bore positive results through a substantial decrease in court backlogs and insolvency case resolution times,” the World Bank said in the report.

  • Lulu Group to enter Indonesia

    Lulu Group to enter Indonesia

    Plans $500mn investment in the country over the next five years

    The first LuLu Hypermarket in Indonesia will be opened in Jakarta by the year-end as the group has announced plans to invest $500mn in the country over the next five years.  The announcement came during the visit of Indonesian President, Joko Widodo to Abu Dhabi. He visited LuLu Hypermarket along with a high-level delegation at Khalidiyah Mall in Abu Dhabi. “With an initial investment of $300mn in the first phase, we plan to open some 15 hypermarkets by the end of 2017 and a central logistics and warehousing facility in Jakarta.

    These projects are likely to generate more than 5,000 job opportunities for Indonesians and help train them at all levels” said MA Yusuffali, LuLu Group managing director. The fact that we are going to Indonesia with our Halal Hypermarket concept, is giving us the encouragement to look for a wider market segment there” Yusuffali said. Apart from Jakarta, LuLu intends to open hypermarkets in Bandung, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta. “We also plan to set up contract farming to ensure continuous supply of high-quality products and support the Indonesian agriculture sector,” Yusuffali added.

    The Indonesian president is on a five-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to boost the country’s ties with the three countries, particularly on investment, trade and Indonesian migrant worker protection.

    Coordinating Minister of Economy Darmin Nasution, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong, Minister of National Development Plans Sofyan Djalil, State Secretariat Minister Pratikno, head of the Investment Coordinating Board Franky Sibarani and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung were also part of Widodo’s delegation.  The Indonesian president was given a rousing welcome at the LuLu Hypermarket by Yusuffali; Saifee Rupawala, CEO; Salim MA, director; Rajmohan Nair, director – LuLu (Far East Operations); and a large number of Indonesian expatriates.

    President Widodo and the accompanying delegation were taken to a guided tour of the hypermarket by Yusuffali who briefed him about specialties of the retail store. The president later said his visit to LuLu Hypermarket was to see Indonesian products mainly agricultural products and asked Yusuffali to import more products from villages and towns in Indonesia.  A LuLu release said Widodo inquired about the prices as well of the various Indonesian products imported to Abu Dhabi.

    The LuLu chain currently operates some 117 stores across the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, and India.

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