The newly-unveiled negative list of investment has turned out to be far from negative.

Contrary to the much publicized concerns from foreign investors, the list neither makes the country over-protected nor closed. But there are still concerns.

What foreign investors initially feared was the certain sectors they were already in, including telecommunications and insurance, would become more restrictive. And they feared they would have to reduce ownership in their companies as a result. Their concerns became true, but only partly.

It's true these sectors – telecommunications and insurance – became more restrictive, with foreign ownership in telecommunication companies (telcos) now restricted to 65 percent for mobile services and 49 percent for fixed network, with the insurance industry at 80 percent.

In reality, foreign ownership in a number of telcos is way above 65 percent, including in Excelcomindo Pratama (70 percent), Hutchinson CP Telecom Indonesia (100 percent) and Natrindo (90 percent).

Similarly, this occurred in the insurance game, including Allianz Life (over 99 percent), Manulife Insurance Indonesia (95 percent), Sunlife (almost 95 percent) and many more.

In total, there are 11 sectors becoming more restrictive. The good news is however the new regulation is not retroactive so those foreign investors should rest assured their controlling ownership in those companies would not be contested.

At least for now, that is. Not until a new regulation is issued, because this regulation is made effective for three years only.

We welcome the government's decision to make this regulation not retroactive so it can provide legal certainty for existing investors who have invested a huge amount of money here. However, we wonder what the considerations are behind the decision to make these previously very open sectors more restricted.

We also wonder how the government arrived at the final figures, let's say 65 percent or 85 percent. They sound like magic numbers.

While it's true some sectors would become more restrictive for foreign investors, more and more sectors are widened further to foreign ownership, including oil and gas exploration, the pharmaceutical industry and construction services.

Some sectors, previously partially or wholly closed, are now opened to foreign investment, including health and education – two of the most important sectors for the well being of the people. And we welcome this.

Many of us have been traveling to Singapore, Malaysia or even the United States just to have our health checked or seek medication. These services and provisions should actually be available domestically.

With an opportunity for foreign investors to enter our health business, including hospitals and nursing services, we hope investors with a good reputation enter the system and eventually help improve the quality of our health services.

This could also happen in the education sector. Allowing foreign schools and universities to invest in Indonesia would help improve the quality of our education, which has long been in tatters because of too many changes. Changes in the education sector's focus have been too many – and there has been an over-emphasis on unnecessary subjects like religion.

We, however, are concerned with the bottom line of this negative list. The list is getting longer and longer and more sectors are becoming restrictive – some are even totally closed to investment.

We could understand why certain sectors such as the production of harmful chemicals and the management of the radio frequency spectrum are totally closed for investment, but we question why sectors like gaming, casinos and museums are included in the list of closed sectors.

In many developed countries, gambling businesses have contributed a significant funds to governments via compulsory taxes. Similarly, private museums in other countries are often more popular to the public, helping boost the tourism industry.

Including these businesses in the negative list would prevent any potential creativity from local governments – they would not be provided the opportunity to tap into these potentially lucrative business opportunities.

But all in all, under this new regulation, there are more sectors being opened than restricted – or closed altogether. A total of 69 sectors would now be more open than before.

Opening up business sectors to foreign investment does not automatically mean foreign investors would come in their hordes. After all, our investment climate would play a significant role in attracting investment.

Therefore, we should see this new regulation and negative list as an initial step. It needs follow up action to woo investors, which in turn would create employment and then wealth for our people.