Factbox: Indonesia eases foreign investment ownership in 'Big Bang' liberalization

Factbox: Indonesia eases foreign investment ownership in 'Big Bang' liberalization

Iqro Rinaldi

Indonesia relaxed rules for international firms in various sectors, including tourism, retail, transportation and film industry.

This was the first revision since 2014 to the so-called Negative Investment List, which spells out the sectors to which foreign investment restrictions apply.

The changes were announced in February as part of a series of policy packages. Widodo signed off the measure last week.

The limits to foreign ownership do not apply in special economic zones.

The following are changes to the Negative Investment List for major industries:

100 PCT OPEN TO FOREIGN INVESTMENT

- Toll roads

- Restaurants, bars

- Film making

- Film distribution

- Cinemas

- Cold storage

- Crumb rubber industry (subject to additional requirements on raw materials, etc)

- Non-toxic waste management

- Informal education, such as beauty, computer and language courses

- Futures traders (did not specify which asset class)

MAJORITY FOREIGN STAKE

- Department stores with sales floor between 400 m2 - 2,000 m2 (67 pct, must be in a mall)

- Distribution of trading business not affiliated with production (67 pct)

- Low-end hotels, museum operation, catering, golf course, bowling, etc (67 pct)

- MICE business (67 pct)

- Supporting services at airport, other transport terminals (67 pct)

- Maritime cargo handling services (67 pct)

- Healthcare facilities such as medical instruments (67 pct)

- Telecommunications networks and services, including call centers, internet service providers, content providers (67 pct)

- Warehousing (67 pct)

- Consulting services in construction (67 pct of the value of project over 10 billion rupiah ($731,528.90))

SECTORS OPENED UP FOR THE FIRST TIME

- Installation of high-voltage utilization (49 pct)

- Land transport (49 pct)

- Several healthcare facilities such as medical instruments (67 pct)

- Film industry including distribution (100 pct)

- E-commerce (100 pct, excluding investment of less than 100 billion rupiah, which is capped at 49 pct)

RESTRICTIONS

- Cap on plantation sector remained 95 pct, but businesses must manage plasma portion of a minimum 20 percent for certain seedling

- Telco tower construction and services is off limits to foreigners

(Compiled by Gayatri Suroyo and Fransiska Nangoy)

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