Going beyond incentives: What Indonesia must do to attract quality investments

IN GLOBAL finance, attention is fleeting but memory is long. Countries that win investment today do so not by offering the cheapest labour or the deepest tax breaks, but by proving they can be trusted when conditions change.

For Indonesia, the next wave of industrial capital will not be drawn by promises. Instead, it will be drawn by credibility. Over the years, international markets and policy debates have shown how quickly sentiment shifts.

One regulatory surprise, one stalled project or one unresolved dispute can undo years of promotional effort. Investors now operate in a world shaped by geopolitical fragmentation, tighter capital and rising political risk.