VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 12 - At least 140 businesspersons and investors from Singapore joined a webinar on investment opportunities in Indonesia's tourism sector, organized by the Indonesian embassy in Singapore on Wednesday.

The webinar provided information on Indonesia’s highly-prioritized tourism development projects in Tanamori Labuan Bajo, Mandalika, and Borobodur temple and investment opportunities in the country.

During the webinar, businesses and investors from the city state were also invited to contribute to Indonesia’s efforts to revive its tourism sector, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore, Suryo Pratomo, said in a press statement that ANTARA received here on Thursday.

Singapore and Indonesia have exchanged the instruments of ratification of their bilateral investment treaty (BIT) on March 9, 2021, Ambassador Pratomo told participants at the webinar.

The BIT provides Indonesian and Singaporean investors guarantee, trust, and legal certainty, he remarked.

Meanwhile, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said the Indonesian government is offering several investment incentives and facilities to foreign investors, including tax allowances, a super deduction tax, and public private partnerships.

Indonesia is focusing on creating a good quality and sustainable tourism industry by attempting to accelerate investment for the development of a green economy through sustainable tourism, he added.

The Indonesian embassy in Singapore is intensively promoting business and investment opportunities in Indonesia and Indonesian products that can potentially infiltrate regional and international markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 27, 2020, Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto launched a virtual showcase of Indonesia's products through a new website, http://showcase.indonesiastore.sg , as part of endeavors to reinvigorate the nation’s export performance which has been direly affected by the ongoing pandemic.

"I congratulate the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore on the launch of this virtual showcase. We do support the promotion of our commodities through digital platforms," he noted in a statement issued in August last year.

Suparmanto said he believes that the role of digital platforms in assisting Indonesia's economic recovery has become more significant. Such platforms would help the country's exporters to explore the market in Singapore and globally, he added.

Singapore's importers would also find it easier to have access to good-quality products and credible business partners in Indonesia, Suparmanto pointed out.

The Indonesian government has been making sustained efforts to boost the country's digital trade activities in the Southeast Asian region, including through participating in ASEAN's Online Sale Day (AOSD), he stated.

The government is also collaborating with Bukalapak, one of Indonesia's leading unicorns, to promote the products made by local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Mainland China's Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

"Under the name of the Archipelago, we have now placed Indonesian products on Amazon. We have also been intensifying the Indonesian-made movement to support the promotion of products of local SMEs via the country's unicorns," he remarked.

The digital platforms are expected to further promote Indonesian products and boost exports, thereby supporting national development programs, he stated.

The launch of the website showcasing Indonesian products is also expected to strengthen partnerships between businesspersons from both Indonesia and Singapore, according to Suparmanto. (Antaranews)