By: Dodik Prasetyo )*
Investment is something that is predicted by the government to improve the economic sector. Not only in the heart of the capital city, investment also needs to be increased in various regions in Indonesia so that the economy in these areas also increases.
The government continues to strive to increase investment in various regions, including in areas that are investment destinations such as Batam. Batam City itself also continues to develop in various fields, one of which is related to industries that support national aviation by utilizing special economic zones (SEZs). In Batam, efforts to absorb investment continue to be increased so that it is increasingly contributing to the local and national economy.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that Singapore really wanted to cooperate with Batam, he said that Batam was exploring data center development, including IBM will build a hybrid cloud in Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) and others. Airlangga also emphasized that Batam must be strengthened with island connections around Bintan, such as Singapore and Sentosa Island.
Indonesia and Singapore are exploring the construction of a bridge connecting Batam and Bintan, the construction plan is to start in 2022, to pursue the target before the change of president in 2024.
This bridge will later become the longest bridge that divides the sea because it has a length of 12 km, beating the Suramadu bridge that connects Surabaya and Madura with a length of 5.43 km.
On a different occasion, the Ministry of Investment / Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) reported that the realization of investment during the April-June period or until the second quarter of 2022 reached Rp 302.2 trillion, an increase of 7% compared to the first quarter of 2022 which reached Rp 282.4 trillion. trillion.
Cumulatively, investment realization data during the January-June 2022 period or until the first semester of 2022 reached Rp 584.6 trillion, an increase of 32.0% (yoy) compared to the same period in 2021. This shows that the Ministry of Investment has collected around 51 percent of this year’s total investment target of Rp 1,200 trillion.
Bahlil Lahadalia as the Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM said that this achievement is a sign that investment in Indonesia has recovered since the Covid-19 pandemic hit Indonesia two years ago. This is also a momentum for entrepreneurs to get back to running their business.
According to Bahlil, the pandemic has made business actors make adjustments, either in the form of delays or temporary cessation of production. At the same time, the government is also making various efforts to help business actors to survive.
He also said that the distribution of investment realization outside Java in this quarter was again superior to Java Island with a contribution of Rp 157.1 trillion or 52.0% of total investment, an increase of 38.0% from the same period in 2021. .
Meanwhile, investment outside Java Island received a large contribution from Central Sulawesi in the third rank and Riau in the fifth rank. Apart from these two regions, the top five positions were occupied by the provinces of West Java, DKI Jakarta and East Java, which still contributed greatly to investment realization this quarter.
From these results, it seems that it has had a positive impact on Central Sulawesi, where the absorption of labor in the first semester of 2022 managed to penetrate 18,801 people.
In Central Sulawesi, it was found that up to June 2022, a Business Identification Number (NIB) has been issued based on data from a risk-based Online Single Submission (OSS) of 5,489. With details of 5,366 SMEs and 123 non-SME actors with a total distribution of 20,793 projects in districts/cities in Central Sulawesi.
The realization achievement in this quarter was apparently able to absorb a workforce of 430,534 people, while during the January-June 2022 period it was 630,547 people.
Based on business sector, this quarter the largest investment realization came from the manufacturing sector, especially the basic metal industry, non-machine metal goods and equipment which contributed 42.1% of the total investment.
Other sectors as the biggest contributors consist of the mining sector, housing sector, industrial and office areas as well as the transportation, warehouse, telecommunications and food industries.
By looking at the current economic performance in Indonesia, the growth in investment realization, Bahlil said that his party is still optimistic that the investment target directed by President Joko Widodo of IDR 1,200 trillion in 2022 can be achieved with the cooperation of the central government, regional governments and investors.
Investment opportunities in the regions are of course still very wide open, investment in the regions of course can encourage economic growth in the regions as well as the fulfillment of basic public services. The existence of investment in the region is expected to provide economic, social and other benefits in order to realize the objectives of the investment.
)* The author is a contributor to the Nusantara Reading Room