2021: “Investment with Integrity, Navigating The New Realities”

INTRODUCTION

Year 2021 will be the challenging year for Indonesia. Many significant social and economic changes have happened recently and within short period of time. Those changes have affected the investment climate in Indonesia significantly. Currently the whole world is experiencing a global pandemic COVID‐19 and this is also bringing Indonesia to face huge problems in health and economic. The health crisis, arguably a proof of a rapid decline of ecological wellbeing, has become economic crisis and Indonesia is expecting a recession this year, probably the deepest since 1998. The Chinese and America trade war, highlighting the battle‐for‐influence of two different concepts of doing business, also give Indonesia new challenge, both as opportunities but also threats. The change in technology through industry 4.0, which made more complex by the pandemic creates different prospects to Indonesian investment environment. Domestically, in the last 18 months Indonesia had released two game‐changing major regulations, UU KPK and UU Cipta Kerja which while both are expected to create better environment for Indonesia investment, their efficacy demands much deeper analysis. Undeniably, Indonesia will always be considered as a promising investment destination both for its size of the market and richness of its natural resources. The current economic outlook, which is better than global average is a good temporal indicator.

Facing these new changes, challenges and hopes, governments, private sectors and all other stakeholders must set out new strategies and actions to ensure the revival and continuity of the country’s economic development. A smart bounce back without sacrificing the backbone of Integrity.

Indonesia Business Links (IBL), a not‐for‐profit organization established in 1999, put Business Integrity as its reason for being. After establishing its presence in the Indonesian business landscape, starting in 2014 it established Business Integrity Forum, a platform for Integrity‐like‐minded stakeholders to exchange issues and searching for solutions. Structured with BIF as the ‘Header Initiative’ it has also spawned Action Forums to allow for the creation of implementation‐actions across the country.

IBL listens and shares the business communities believe that Business With Integrity is an imperative for Sustainability.

OBJECTIVES

• To re‐establish common understanding on the new landscape of Business in Indonesia, on the two specific aspects of Investment and Integrity,
• To explore common interest on collaborative initiatives to further the effort toward high integrity business investment and operation,
• To expand the network of like‐minded stakeholders in the business, government, academe and society sectors both domestic and internationally,
• To share opinions and advices on how to increase investment in Indonesia through best business integrity practices.

ACTIVITY

The BIF 2020 will be held through by‐invitation‐only virtual seminar via a videoconferencing platform and the YouTube live streaming on Tuesday, 8 December 2020, from 09.30am to 11.30am Indonesia Western Time. This will be the first online forum for BIF but this will give great opportunity for many IBL partners overseas to be able to participate in.

Prior to the event, IBL will conduct an online survey to collect views from selected executives of the private sector about their views on investment with integrity in Indonesia.

Three key questions have been drafted for the survey:

• Definition of “good” investment for Indonesia.
• What are the handicaps?
• Suggested solutions.

The online BIF 2020 is designed to capture perspectives, insights and proposed solution from experts, private sectors and government executives on integrity issues, barriers, expectation in the current and future investment sector in today’s emerging Indonesia.