“Keep Calm and Invest in Indonesia”
Joko Widodo, President of Republic of Indonesia
President Jokowi sandwiched 2 days in London within a 5 day, 4 nations visit to Europe. The president was accompanied by Darmin Nasution (Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs), Retno Marsudi (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Thomas Lembong (Minister of Trade), Susi Pudjiastuti (Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries), and Pramono Anung (Cabinet Secretary). The president wrapped up his visit to the UK by sealing investment deals worth a total of US$19billion that included of British business giants such as British Petroleum, Jardine Matheson Group and HSBC.
At the margins of the Indonesian Presidential visit to the UK, BritCham Indonesia conducted a trade mission to the UK with more than 20 businesses from Surabaya, Jakarta, Semarang and Bandung joining the trade mission. The main objective of the trade mission were to establish business connection and business match making.
As part of the agenda of the trade mission, Adrian Short (President Director of Rolls Royce Indonesia & Chairman of BrithCham Indonesia), Chris Wren (Executive Director of BritCham Indonesia), Jamhadi (Chairman of KADIN Surabaya) and Malcolm Llewelyn OBE (Director of Numada & Board Member of BritCham Indonesia) presented a webinar which was a preview of a unique visit program to Indonesia taking place is later in the year with the option to cover Indonesia 3 largest cities.
The visit in June will be the first ever Indonesia only three cities visit program. In the last two years, BritCham has invested resources in developing networks in regions outside of Jakarta, such as West Java (Bandung) and East Java (Surabaya). Both of these regions have ambitious and realistic plans for developing their regions. These plans present opportunities for British businesses to engage with local parties as service providers and supply chain.
This webinar was the second in a series of three and focusing on manufacturing-supply chain and agritech. Whereas the first series was about Fintech and doing business in second cities-Bandung and Surabaya.
The event continued with a UK-Indonesia networking reception organized by the London Chamber of Commerce and UKABC to welcome BritCham Indonesia delegates. Attendees were members of UKABC and London Chamber of Commerce and Home Counties based businesses that were interested and have plans to join this or subsequent Trade Mission to Indonesia.
Mr. Jamhadi as Chairman of KADIN Surabaya (Surabaya Chamber of Commerce) and advisor to the Governor of Surabaya, had the opportunity to share with the attendees the ease of doing business in East Java especially in Surabaya. As the second major provincial investment destination in Indonesia, Surabaya is a perfect investment destination according to Mr. Jamhadi. He also mentioned that there are several huge projects going on in Surabaya including airport, sea port and highway roads. Each presents opportunities for British businesses.
On Tuesday the 19th of April, the BritCham delegation had 1-2-1 meetings with UK companies as the main objective to establish business connections and business match making, BritCham Indonesia assisted the delegates to contact and arrange 1-2-1 meetings with UK companies during their visit to London. In the evening, BritCham delegates attended KADIN /BCCI Business delegation Investment Briefing. This was opened by David Slater, Director of International Trade and followed by Dhaval Gore, Head of Developed Markets Investment. Through this briefing, attendees were provided with information about investment opportunities in the UK, real estate investment trends and opportunities in London as well as UK investment outlook which was delivered by Yael Slefin, Head of Macroeconomics at KPMG UK.
The Jardines Matheson Group generously hosted a high-level cocktail reception at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for BritCham Indonesia delegates, their own corporate stakeholders and other leading London business folk.
On Wednesday 20 April, BritCham delegation joined the Business Forum which was attended by the President of Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (better known as Jokowi). President Jokowi delivered a speech at BKPM London Business Forum at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London. The President said Indonesia had reached economic stability and issued business friendly regulations to attract more foreign investors to Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. In the UK, cooperation will focus on the creative economy and creative industries, which will be followed up by the Creative Economy Agency. In his speech, President Jokowi mentioned that economic growth and a stable investment climate as the forecast had been 4.8 per cent year on year but in the fourth quarter of 2015, it reached 5.04 per cent year on year.
During his visit to the UK, Indonesia and the UK signed agreements to tighten cooperation in five different fields, including an agreement between Garuda Indonesia, Airbus and Rolls Royce. The MoU between Garuda Indonesia, Airbus and Rolls Royce aims to develop the capacity of Garuda Maintenance Facility which included a US$ 1.2 billion procurement of several new aircraft engines from the UK’s Rolls Royce and the training of Indonesian engineers.
The President said that there might be a global economic crises and we will face social challenges but he urged British business to “keep calm and invest in Indonesia”.
Keynote speech by the President was followed by panel discussions and Adrian Short, Chairman of BritCham Indonesia who is also the President Director of Rolls Royce Indonesia had the opportunity to be a panelist discussing Indonesia as a promising business destination.
On Thursday 21 April, the delegates traveled to Sheffield to attend a key event in Rotherham as part of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Exporting is GREAT Week. The delegation attended Breaking Barriers: Succeed Overseas for first time and established exporters from 9am to 2pm at the Advanced Technology Centre, Rotherham. The event was organized by UKTI partner organization, South Yorkshire International Trade Centre (SYITC) with the trade mission supported by British Chambers of Commerce, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UK-Asean Business Council and EU-Indonesia Trade Cooperation Facility. Through this event, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce signed a MoU with KADIN Surabaya (Surabaya Chamber of Commerce).
A visit to the Sheffield Advanced Engineering Research Centre provided a perfect sense of how the private and education sectors can collaborate profitably on innovation to secure technological advantages for the future.
Thanks go to London Chamber of Commerce, UKABC, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, UKTI and all supporting parties.
