Experts believe Prabowo still values Chinese investment

A senior advisor to Indonesia's Laboratory 2045 (Lab 45) predicts that President-elect Prabowo will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, President Joko, when he comes to power.One thing worth emphasizing is the issue of investment, and he believes that the eighth president of Indonesia will still be concerned about investment from China. If he predicts what Prabowo is going to do, the geopolitical dynamics will bring money into Indonesia, but it will still come from China, it will still come from petrodollars.Even so, he believes that Prabowo will not follow Joko's lead in his approach to Saudi Arabia or the UAE, and he reckons that Prabowo will look more to Qatar for investment. Whereas in the past Joko favored Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Prabowo will favor Qatar. Then when it came to Western Europe, they were average and it was very difficult to get investment from them. On top of that, the geopolitical dynamics facing Prabowo in the future will be more complex, so the options for bringing foreign investment into Indonesia will be more limited than when President Joko first came to power in 2014. Considering the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the Israeli invasion of Gaza is now escalating to Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iran. The worst case scenario is that the global situation is dire and Indonesia is not at war with anyone, but the US and Australia must compete in the local region to secure their interests in East Asia, which is their only concern.

Economic relations between Indonesia and China are said to have entered a golden age during the leadership era of the two heads of state, President Joko and the Chinese leader, as evidenced by the rise in the ranking of Chinese investment, which is now in second place, according to the Economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Investment/BKPM, Chinese investment in 2022 and 2023 is the second highest in the country with $8.2 billion and $7.4 billion respectively. This ranking is up from 2021, when China ranked third with US$3.1 billion in investments. In the decade of Joko's administration, Indonesia's economic relationship with China has entered a golden age, rising from 12th place in terms of investment achievement to second place after Singapore. Investment cooperation has become an accelerating tool of the golden decade and is key to Indonesia's economic development. The growth of Chinese investment in Indonesia has also been supported by the downstream policy promoted by President Joko, with Chinese investors responding most positively to the program. He cited the development of Morowali regency as an example of how different it was from a decade ago, where Morowali used to be dominated by fishermen, but has now succeeded in producing industrial products.