Indonesia launches investor map on sustainable development goals
Jakarta
GLOBAL investors seeking opportunities in Indonesia now have a clear road map into sectors that are inline with the country's sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Indonesia, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program and with support from Temasek Trust, recently became the first country in South-east Asia to launch a SDG Investor Map.
This map can be used by the private sector to explore 18 identified investment themes and business models across 6 SDG-enabling sectors.
The map -co-created by UNDP Indonesia and SDG Impact, with support from Temasek Trust - joins 18 other maps spanning the developing markets on the SDG Investor Platform.
The 6 SDG-enabling sectors are education, healthcare, agriculture, renewable energy, financials and infrastructure.
"Temasek Trust is supporting the initiative as a collaborative partner as we believe that impact investing can be mainstreamed to play a critical role in addressing the pressing social and environmental challenges of our time," said Temasek Trust chief executive officer Cheo Hock Kuan.
"Through impact investing, investors will be able to achieve returns with purpose, and be part of the solution for social good," she added.
The identified investment themes and business models have already seen positive investor activity and recorded favourable exits, laying the grounds for further scale, according to a statement from the Ministry of Development & Planning (Bappenas).
"Indeed, 78 per cent of the business models identified have raised funding of over US$1 million. The map also explores digitalisation, climate, gender and marginalisation as underpinning themes," it noted.
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the annual financing gap for developing countries to achieve their SDG goals by 2030 by US$3.7 trillion.
The private sector can play a critical role to fill the funding gap, and the investor map is thus critical to sustainable investments.
Arifin Rudiyanto, deputy minister for Maritime and Natural Resources Affairs said the investor map could support SDG acceleration in Indonesia.
"Indonesia is committed to be the forefront pioneer and a role model to achieve SDGs," he said. "Due to the pandemic, the government has prioritised the principles of sustainability in Indonesia's future development by redesigning the economic transformation."
Dr Rudiyanto added that the map can support collaboration between government and non-state actors which is designed to serve 264 million people - a third of which are children - comprising 1,300 ethnic groups across 17,000 islands.
"The map adequately captures the investment potential and policy momentum using impactful market intelligence that can contribute positively to the SDGs," he said.
Norimasa Shimamura, Resident Representative UNDP Indonesia said: "There are investors out there looking for SDG opportunities, but have not been able to make their investment decisions simply due to limited information and knowledge about the local market.
"Indeed, one of the challenges in mobilising private sector finance for SDG projects has been the limited availability of data and insight into SDG-aligned investment possibilities."
The intelligence produced by the map will also help inform Indonesia's post-Covid-19 "Build Forward Better" strategy, as the government commits to close the SDG financing gap by encouraging private sector investors and other non-state actors to take a role in SDG investment.
Jakarta has set an ambitious G20 agenda on sustainable finance, which is reflected in the work being carried out by various working groups including in sustainable finance and infrastructure.
