We continue to make efforts to improve the business climate. What for? So that investment flows to Indonesia and with that the quality of economic growth can be better. We know that with investment there will be more jobs and when more people can work, the purchasing power will increase. Sixteen policy packages that have been issued by the government are intended to attract investment. The big question now, has the investment coming in as big as we expect? We must dare to say, “Not yet!” We hope that the incoming investment can be greater because the potential we have is so great. Of course the next question is why it happened?
Why have the various breakthroughs made by the government, ranging from providing ease of business permits, building various kinds of infrastructure, to granting tax holidays, have not attracted people to invest in Indonesia? We often forget about the issue of legal certainty. We do not adopt this matter to privilege business from the law. What we want to remind you is, to what extent is the law based on enforcement in order to create a level playing field not because of revenge? There are at least two business cases that deserve to be jointly studied because they will affect investment. The first is the punishment for former Pertamina CEO Karen Agustiawan who was found guilty only for investing in the upstream sector.
Second, the determination of suspects to entrepreneurs Sjamsul Nursalim and Itjih Nursalim for receiving Bank Indonesia liquidity assistance, which the Indonesian government had actually completed through a master of settlement and acquisition agreement in 1999. The case that befell Karen feels odd because what she and Pertamina’s Board of Directors are doing is investing in upstream sector to increase oil reserves. When giving testimony at court, Medco Energy President Director Hilmi Panigoro explained that the character of the oil and gas industry is indeed full of risks. Therefore, Pertamina’s investment in Australia is to cooperate with other world companies to reduce this risk.