Indonesia's foreign direct investment at first 9 months grows by 14.6%

The foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia from January to September expanded by 14.6 percent to 228.3 trillion rupiah (about 18. 679 billion U.S. dollars) on yearly basis, Chairman of Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Mahendra Siregar said here on Friday.
Domestic investment at the period grew by 21.6 percent to 114.4 trillion rupiah (some 9.360 billion U.S. dollars), said Mahendra at the BKPM headquarters.
The combined of both foreign and domestic investments at the period grew by 16.8 percent to 342.7 trillion rupiah (equal to 28. 04 billion U.S. dollars), he said.
That exceeds this year's investment target of a 15-percent growth, according to him.
For the next year, Mahendra said that the board forecast the investment to scale up by 18 percent.
He has said that the country's efforts to improve the quality of bureaucracy, which had been one of the bottle necks in efforts to attract international investors, had been on progress recently.
The biggest economy in the region's effort to lure foreign investors has grown after Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service hiked the country's sovereign credit rating to investment grade in late 2011 and early 2012, respectively.
The country's competitiveness rank has climbed to 34 from 58, in part due to the improvement on bureaucracy, particularly on the process to get investment license, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Indonesia, home to over 238 million populations and has abundant natural resources, has a strong consumer demand and steady economic growth.
Indonesia's economy is expected to expand by 5.6 percent next year, rising from this year's projection of 5.2 to 5.3 percent.