Indonesia plans 'big bang' opening of economy to foreign investment

Jakarta

INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo on Wednesday unveiled plans for a "big bang" loosening of restrictions on foreign investment in nearly 50 sectors of the economy to encourage competition.

The proposal by the Indonesian leader popularly known as Jokowi which will ease rules in the e-commerce, retail, healthcare and movie industries, is the most far-reaching yet in a string of stimulus packages rolled out over the past six months to arrest a slowdown in growth.

South-east Asia's largest economy has been growing at its slowest pace in six years because of falling commodity prices and cooling growth in major trading partner China.

But Jokowi told Reuters he was very optimistic that growth would rebound to …