Indonesia last year received 8.5 percent more foreign direct investment (FDI) in rupiah terms than it attracted in 2016, investment board data showed on Tuesday. For all of 2017, FDI in sectors excluding banking and oil and gas was 430.5 trillion rupiah, which the board converted to $32.24 billion.
For 2016, it had reported an 8.4 percent increase from the previous year, in rupiah terms. While there was improvement in 2017, Thomas Lembong, head of Indonesia's investment board told reporters more needed to be done to attract FDI.
"We are still losing to the neighbouring countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand," Lembong said. "We have to continue improving the investment climate." The amount of FDI attracted last year was fractionally above the investment board's targeted of 429 trillion rupiah.
The biggest chunk of 2017 FDI went to the mining sector, followed by utilities and electronics, board data showed. Singapore was the biggest source of investment last year, followed by Japan and China.
In October-December period, FDI increased by 10.6 percent in rupiah terms, to 112 trillion rupiah, compared with a 12 percent annual increase in the previous quarter, to 111.7 trillion rupiah.