Investors from South Korea plan to invest up to USD $18 billion in Indonesia. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Kadin) Rosan Perkasa Roeslani, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi witnessed the signing of business agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoU) in Seoul on Monday (16/05), covering bilateral cooperation in infrastructure development such as power plants, gas pipelines and railways as well as trade, creative economy, environment, and maritime affairs.

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According to the Central Java Police Department, executions of 13 convicted drug traffickers - through firing squad - are being prepared and should be completed within a couple of weeks. Names and nationalities of the 13 people on death row in Indonesia have not been published yet. However, it is reported in media that three Indonesian prisoners have been transferred to the island Nusa Kambangan, the location where executions usually take place, on Sunday (08/05).

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The Indonesian government released the 12th economic policy package on Thursday (28/04). This latest edition focuses on enhancing the ease of doing business for the small and mid-sized companies in Indonesia in a bid to attract more investment, hence giving a boost to economic growth. In the 12th package the government announces it has cut a number of procedures and permits, as well as costs, required for the development of a business. Indonesia's Chief Economics Minister Darmin Nasution unveiled the package on Thursday in Jakarta's Presidential Palace.

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Rosan Roeslani, Chairman of Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin Indonesia), is optimistic that investment from the Netherlands into Indonesia will continue to grow in the years ahead as the Indonesian government has been focused on improving the investment climate of Southeast Asia's largest economy. President Joko Widodo's visit to the Netherlands (22-23 April 2016) resulted in about USD $606 million worth of Dutch investment commitments, signed on Friday (22/04) in The Hague.

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On 24 April 2016, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve political and economic matters such as Joko Widodo's visit to Europe, the monetary policy of Bank Indonesia, Indonesia's Gini ratio, the palm oil and coal sectors, foreign ownership of property in Indonesia, the problems surrounding infrastructure spending in Indonesia, and more.

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For the first time in 16 years an Indonesian president will visit the Netherlands. Starting on 21 April 2016 Indonesian President Joko Widodo will pay a two-day state visit to the former colonial masters as the last part of his short visit to the European Union. The main aim of the visit to the Netherlands is to enhance economic ties between both nations. Widodo (often called "Jokowi") will be welcomed by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, meet Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, visit Maasvlakte 2 (a major civil engineering project in the port city of Rotterdam), and meet various Dutch businessmen.

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In its bid to enhance connectivity across the Indonesian archipelago, the government of Indonesia is eager to boost toll road development. Enhanced connectivity is key to curtail the nation's high logistics costs hence improving the competitiveness of domestic businesses while also making the investment climate more attractive. Besides business interests, enhanced infrastructure development is also important from a social point of view (for example, people's access to healthcare is improved). In this column we take a look at the developments of the Balikpapan-Samarinda toll road on the island of Kalimantan.

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On 13 March 2016, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as the performance of Indonesian blue chip stocks, the impact of negative interest rates in the Eurozone, logistics costs, coal mining, crude palm oil, Japanese investment, and more.

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Today (09/12) millions of Indonesians head to the ballot boxes to vote for new regional leaders i.e. nine provincial governors, 36 mayors, and 224 district heads. These elections are important as the process of decentralization in the post-Suharto era has transferred considerable authority and power to the regions. As such, the regions now have a larger role and greater responsibility regarding economic development. Around 100 million people are eligible to cast a vote in the world's third-largest democracy. Today, 9 December 2015, has been declared a public national holiday.

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Land acquisition remains a major obstacle to infrastructure development in Indonesia. Full-scale construction of the USD $4 billion Batang plant, a 2 GW coal-fired power plant in Central Java, is waiting for the final ruling of Indonesia's Supreme Court near the year-end. This court case is an important one as it will be the first court case to test Indonesia's Law No.2/2012 on Land Procurement for Development in the Public Interest (known as the 'Land Acquisition Act'). The Batang plant is a public-private partnership (PPP) project.

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More and more concerns have arisen recently regarding the democratic future of Indonesia. In fact, some media have reported that an impeachment of president-elect Joko Widodo, who will assume office on 20 October 2014, could become a reality as opposition in parliament - led by controversial and vindictive former army general Prabowo Subianto - is large. The Merah-Putih coalition, referring to the coalition of political parties that supported Subianto in the presidential election (which he narrowly lost to Widodo) will control 353 of the 560 seats in parliament.

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Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR) approved the 2015 State Budget on Monday (29/09) that was proposed by the outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration. The budget deficit is now set at IDR 245.9 trillion (USD $20.5 billion), equivalent to 2.21 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and lower than the 2.32 percent of GDP proposed by the government in both the Financial Memorandum and the Revised 2015 State Budget. However, the accepted budget deficit is still high compared to previous years.

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US Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen reminded global investors to prepare for a sooner-than-expected US interest rate hike (Fed Funds Rate, FFR) provided that the economy of the USA - the world’s largest economy - continues its improving trend. In fact, speculation has emerged that the FFR will be raised before the end of 2014 although Yellen stated more than once that the ‘close-to-zero’ interest rate environment would be maintained for a considerable period after the US bond-buying program (quantitative easing) has ended.

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According to data from ANZ-Roy Morgan, Indonesian consumer confidence increased 3.7 points to hit a record high at 161.4 points in August. Compared to the same month last year, Indonesian consumer confidence has grown by 11.9 points. Improved confidence in August is primarily due to increased confidence in personal finances and consumers’ expectation to buy household appliances. Indonesians are also more optimistic about the condition of the domestic economy in the five years ahead due to the arrival of president-elect Joko Widodo.

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Indonesia’s fuel subsidy policy is estimated to have a large influence on investors’ confidence in the financial or fiscal fundamentals of Southeast Asia’s largest economy and thus on the performance of the local stock index and currency. New president elect Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi) is expected to raise prices of subsidized fuels after taking office in late October 2014 in an attempt to combat the country’s wide current account deficit (mainly caused by expensive oil imports to meet domestic fuel demand).

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The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) expects that the country’s current account deficit will only ease slightly in 2014. Last year, the deficit reached 3.3 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP), a level which is generally considered unsustainable and leads to reduced investor confidence. Countries that have to cope with a wide current account deficit, such as Indonesia and India, are highly vulnerable in times of global shocks as investors will quickly withdraw their investments from assets in these countries.

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The government of Indonesia agreed with the House Budget Committee to adjust the economic growth target of Southeast Asia’s largest economy in 2015 to 5.8 percent, 0.2 percentage point up from the initial growth target proposed by the government in the Financial Memorandum as well as the 2015 State Budget Draft (APBN). Still, the 5.8 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth target constitutes the lowest growth target set in Indonesia’s state budget (excluding revised state budgets) since the year 2010.

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The benchmark stock index of Indonesia (Jakarta Composite Index, abbreviated IHSG) ended at a record high on Wednesday (03/09) as market sentiments were positive after the Indonesian government raised USD $1.5 billion from 10-year dollar-denominated Islamic bonds (known as sukuk) on Tuesday (02/09). Foreign investors submitted USD $10 billion worth of bids, six times the amount offered, showing that they are confident about the country’s current and future economic prospects.

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Speculation has emerged that Indonesian President-elect Joko Widodo (Jokowi) plans to raise prices of subsidized fuels immediately after taking office in late October 2014. On Tuesday (02 /09), Jokowi said that he sees no other option than to raise these prices in an effort to relieve the budget deficit, curb the wide current account deficit and make more funds available for long-term productive public investments (such as on infrastructure, healthcare and education). The government has set aside IDR 291.1 trillion (USD $25 billion) for fuel subsidies in 2015.

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Property stocks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) have outperformed all other stocks between the first trading day of 2014 up to 29 August 2014. The IDX’ property sector category rose 37.6 percent in the indicated period, whereas the benchmark stock index (Jakarta Composite Index, abbreviated IHSG) - which involves all stocks traded on the IDX - climbed 18.7 percent over the same period. On the IDX, stocks are placed in ten sectoral categories. The second-best performing sectoral index was finance (+24.5 percent).

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