Malaysian companies will continue to make investments in Indonesia spurred partly by the latter’s strong economy and its initiatives in combating red tape for investors.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (pic) said the strong participation of Malaysian companies signaled Malaysia’s keen interest to continue investing in Indonesia, which is underpinned by the confidence in Indonesia’s economic trajectory and reforms initiated by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) Administration,especially in cutting red tape for investors.

Over the past decade, Malaysian companies have established a strong presence in Indonesia including in key sectors such as banking, plantation, construction, toll-road, energy as well as telecommunications.

“During my courtesy call on President Jokowi, I relayed the interest of Malaysian companies to continue investing in Indonesia’s infrastructure development. Indonesia’s US$1trillion economy with a 250 million population and growing middle class has a lot of potential, which once fully tapped, will contribute significantly towards creating a more prosperous Asean.

“Indonesia is an important trading partner to Malaysia - our total trade stood at US$13.8bil in 2016. On the investments front, in the period of 2008-2016, Malaysia has invested about US$15bil in Indonesia, while Indonesian investments in Malaysia stood at about US$2.6bil in Malaysia,’’ he said in a statement.

Mustapa, who concluded his working visit to Indonesia from June 11 to June 13, added as for reaching the joint target of US$30bil of trade by both counties, Malaysia agreed to come up with our respective specific proposals to boost trade including the potential venture in new areas for collaboration, including the digital economy and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

These proposals would be further deliberated at the upcoming 3rd Joint Investment & Trade Committee Meeting schedules to be held on July 10-13 July in Kuching, Sarawak.

The roundtable meeting was attended by 80 business leaders, 40 from Malaysia and another 40 from Indonesia, making it an historic occasion as it was the first joint discussion with the largest number of high- level government and business delegation to date.