Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Indonesia – while being friends with all – has to compete with other ASEAN nations for foreign direct investments (FDI), particularly high-quality ones that can create many jobs, according to Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani.
Speaking before the country's businessmen and foreign dignitaries, Rosan admitted that Jakarta had to cut its bureaucratic red tapes to prevent investors from running to other Southeast Asian economies. Driving investment inflows is crucial to reach the 8 percent annual growth by the end of President Prabowo Subianto's term in office.
"We are competing with our neighboring countries in ASEAN to attract FDI. We are friends, but at the same time, we have to compete.... We have to be smart, so we have to keep reforming our policies," Rosan said at the 2025 Investor Daily Summit in Jakarta.
"That includes minimizing the piles of rules that might confuse [investors].... But investments are not only about the quantity, but also the quality. We must look for sustainable investments, particularly ones that generate jobs."
The government plans to accelerate regulatory reforms under Government Regulation No. 28/2025, supported by a Rp 175 billion ($10.53 million) budget to streamline permits and reduce investment bottlenecks. The new rule introduces a risk-based business licensing system through the Online Single Submission (OSS) platform, simplifying the process for low-risk enterprises.
Indonesia seeks to attract Rp 1.9 quadrillion ($114.4 billion) in investments from home and abroad throughout this year.
The country amassed Rp 942.9 trillion in investments in the first half of 2025, about 54.1 percent of which had come from overseas, data showed.
Despite the competition, businessmen from fellow ASEAN members – Singapore and Malaysia – have largely put their money in Indonesia. Singapore invested $8.8 billion in Indonesia throughout the first half, making up the biggest share at around 32.4 percent of the total FDI. Malaysia was the fourth-largest international investor at around $1.7 billion, data showed. All these investments had created jobs for nearly 1.3 million people.