The Indonesian government will offer more interesting tax incentives than other ASEAN countries, to lure more investment inflow, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated. The incentives are made to finalize all investment`s regulation in Indonesia that had been ordered by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
"We have done a benchmarking and in terms of allowance and holiday, our offers will be much better than Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Philippines," she noted in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The Finance Minister noted the incentive package will be announced by President Jokowi in April this year, in order to give global`s confidence towards economic growth, emerging market, and conducive investment`s climate in Indonesia.
"The government has undeniable commitment to reform investment policy. We will provide ease of doing business, simplification, service, and certainty," she said.
Indrawati revealed that there would be some radical changes in the incentives` package on tax holiday and tax allowance. Indonesia will give a certainty of 100 percent tax holiday to replace existing 1 percent rate.
"Every qualified business that gets facility will be receiving a 100 percent tax holiday in a certain of period, which depends on its investment`s values. The bigger, the longer it will get a tax holiday," she noted.
Indonesia would also offer tax allowance for pioneers category in order to expand its business capacity. This category could also choose to receive tax holiday or tax allowance.
"For small-medium enterprises with under Rp4.8 billion (turnover), we will cut their income tax from 1 percent to 0.5 recent," said Indrawati.
The low income tax incentives would also be given to research and development investments in order to encourage product innovation. ( antara )
The administration of East Belitung District, Province of Bangka Belitung, has proposed a geopark in the area to be included in the UNESCO Global Geopark ( UGG ) list in order to enhance tourism development and increase the number of tourist visits.
The Executive Director of Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Bambang Subiyanto, expressed hoped that the "Indonesia Science Expo" (ISE) 2018 could be known worldwide as an international science and technology exhibition. ISE 2018 has been held thrice, with the previous ones held in 2015 and 2017. ISE 2018 will feature some research results of Indonesian researchers.
"We had participants from abroad last year; hopefully, this year`s event will be more inspiring," he stated in the press release here on Wednesday.
The aim of this science fair is to echo the results of the research to make the public understand the significance and role of research, science and technology, and innovation for a better life in the future.
"We will invite LIPI partners from different countries to participate. Besides, there will also be a `Youth Science Fair,` which is usually for young participants," he noted.
People need to understand science and technology and also the research results. ISE 2018 is one of the means to spread science and technology and research results from Indonesian researchers and innovators. ISE 2018 is expected to not only provide an understanding on raising the community`s awareness of science and technology but also to provide useful outcomes for the community, especially young people. (antara)
PT Mass Rapid Transportation (MRT) Jakarta has discussed funding scheme with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for its future project. He said the AIIB officials had come to directly see the development of the current MRT project in Jakarta and at the same time also discuss funding scheme, tariffs and potential of MRT Jakarta non-fare box business.
"On Monday we received AIIB officials in Jakarta. We discussed several issues including funding scheme for next MRT development project," the company`s president director, William Sabandar, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
He added the AIIB officials had come to directly see the development of the current MRT project in Jakarta and at the same time also discuss funding scheme, tariffs and potential of MRT Jakarta non-fare box business.
"There were at least four funding schemes found to be implementable. The first scheme is done through inter-government loans with equity investment from government funding," he said. The second is through commercial corporate financr in the form of asset-based corporate bonds or export credit agencies for imported components, he said. The third scheme is done through government-business entity partnership and the fourth through partnership between the government and budiness entities through initial public offering.
Sabandar said PT MRT Jakarta has been appointed as the sole operator of transit oriented development (TOD) area for the first and second phases of the MRT project.
"The presence of MRT is expected to be one of the solutions to deal with traffic congestion in line with a change in the lifestyle of residents who would change from private cars to public transportation system in addition to improving air quality," he said.
He further said until the end of February civil and architectural construction of the first phase of the project had reached 91.86 percent while two sets of MRT engines are expected to arrive in Jakarta on March 26. (antara)