Indonesia plans to unlock more sectors to overseas investors including health, agriculture and creative, although will not allow investment in telecommunication towers, the head of the country's investment co-ordinating board said. Gita Wirjawan said a draft on investment in strategic areas, known as the negative list on foreign investment, had been finalised and should be approved soon.
There has been fierce resistance from local vested interests to proposals to open up multi-billion dollar investment in areas such as base towers for mobile phones and there could still be other late changes in the draft. "We have finalised the draft and by the end of this month, if it's not plus a few more weeks, we should have it signed by the president," Wirjawan said late on Friday, referring to the a revised draft of the current negative.
In healthcare, foreign investors would be allowed to hold up to 67 percent in hospitals across Indonesia, he said. Previously, foreign ownership had been restricted to a few provincial cities such as Surabaya, in East Java and Medan, North Sumatra. Foreigners will be allowed to have a maximum ownership of 49 percent in staple food plantations like rice, as well as cargo services and film businesses, added Wirjawan, a former investment banker with J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs.