A top official from one of the largest Indonesian trade groups yesterday proposed boosting bilateral investments by building a Taiwan Street Mall to boost its image in Indonesia.
A Taiwan-themed mall, like Taipei’s Ximending (西門町), would draw people’s attention, said Setyono Djuandi Darmono (許龍川), chairman of KADIN Indonesia’s (Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) Taiwan Committee.
It would make Taiwanese companies feel more “comfortable” tapping into the Indonesian market if government-backed agencies led project, he told the Taipei Times.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan should make itself stand out, especially because there are already more than 250 “Chinatowns” in Indonesia, he added.
Taiwan could explore opportunities in new cities outside Jakarta, such as Cikarang, since the capital is a relatively saturated market, Darmono said.
It would be a win-win if Taiwanese companies could sell their products in newly developed areas, he said.
Darmono is a founder of PT Jababeka Tbk, the first publicly listed industrial-estate developer in Indonesia.
“I expect something concrete [in the cooperation between Taiwan and Indonesia], even if it is small,” Darmono said on the sidelines of the inking of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between KADIN Indonesia and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會).
“We hope to establish a platform through collaborations with KADIN Indonesia after the three-day Taiwan Expo in Jakarta,” TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said, adding that the Indonesian trade group has about 90,000 members.
The two parties are to hold meetings to discuss the details of further cooperation soon, Huang said.
Apart from labor-intensive manufacturing industries, the two economies can work together in the fields of energy and e-commerce, KADIN Indonesia vice chairman Shinta Widjaja Kamdani said.
Some foreign investors might face challenges when doing businesses in Indonesia, but the Indonesian government is trying to attract foreign investment by improving policy consistency and introducing tax incentives, Kamdani added.
TAITRA yesterday inked another MOU in Jakarta with PT MNC Investama Tbk (MNC Group), a media conglomerate that also owns financial, transportation and telecommunications businesses.
The collaborations between the two parties are to focus on financial and “smart” city projects, MNC group said.
Only 60 million Indonesians have bank accounts, MNC group chairman Hary Tanoesoedibjo (陳明立) said, adding that Indonesia’s financial industry is relatively small, given the country’s population of more than 250 million people.
Indonesia could follow Taiwan’s well-established financial structure, Tanoesoedibjo said.
TAITRA also led a special team comprising officials from eight Taiwanese banks, including state-run First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) and Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), to visit the Indonesian group and assess the possibility of expanding in Southeast Asian markets, in line with the government’s New Southbound Policy.
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