Jakarta bombing discourages Australian investors

The bombing outside the Australian embassy here on Sept. 9 has discouraged some Australian investors who had earlier intended to invest in Indonesia, a business association head has said.

"For existing investors, the impact may not be that massive. But for those who are still in the process of investing here, it has caused great concern," Indonesian-Australian Business Council chairman Noke Kiroyan was quoted Friday by The Jakarta Post newspaper as saying.

"They're at least canceling their investment plans, if not pulling out altogether," Noke said while refusing to release specific data.

He called on the authorities to quickly catch the bombers and introduce measures to avoid similar occurrences in the future.

Noke is the latest industry figure to voice concern about the impact of the bombing, which has killed nine people so far and injured more than 180 others, on investment, especially from overseas.

Even before the terror attack, foreign direct investment (FDI) was scare as a result of various uncertainties and problems. FDI approvals during the first seven months of this year fell by 33 percent to 3.3 billion US dollars from 4.97 billion in the same period last year.

The volume of trade between Indonesia and Australia is valued at 9 billion dollars per year, and is on the upward path. Indonesia is currently Australia's tenth largest export destination.

Noke said the council had not yet been able to come up definitive figures on which or how many investors had canceled or postponed their investment plans here, as it was still collecting information.

Chris Kanter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry(Kadin) said Indonesia was now considered less attractive than Malaysia and Vietnam in terms of investment, and on a par with Cambodia.

Source: Xinhua