Several Chinese companies that are ranked in the Fortune 500 are exploring investment in Indonesia, including North Kalimantan, as part of their follow-up initiative after the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) that was held on 14–15 May 2017 in Beijing. This event, visited by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, is a platform for working out action plans for investment in the areas of infrastructure, energy and resources, production capacity, trade, financial cooperation, and the identification of major projects.

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Normally the Ramadan month and Idul Fitri holiday (the celebration that marks the end of the Islamic fasting month) trigger an acceleration of economic activity as people consume more products (such as food and clothes), while the exodus of people from the cities to the rural areas during the week-long Idul Fitri (where they will spend a short holiday) causes a massive flow of money from the urban areas into the regional economies.

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Car and motorcycle sales of the Astra Group, one of Indonesia's largest diversified conglomerates, still show no positive signs in the first half of 2017. Fransiscus Soerjopranoto, Executive General Manager at Toyota Astra Motor, said this Astra unit's retail sales fell 0.8 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 186,365 units in the first six months of 2017. This bleak performance is attributed to Indonesians' weaker consumer purchasing power.

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BRI Syariah, the Islamic banking unit of leading Indonesian commercial bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), is currently assessing the prospects of conducting an initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Indri Tri Handayani, Corporate Secretary at BRI Syariah, will invite several supporting institutions active within capital markets to advise on this IPO plan, including the administrative matters. If BRI Syariah will indeed go-ahead with the IPO, then it will not be realized sooner than early 2018.

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