Batam's Free Trade Zone Not Yet Function Maximally

Batam (ANTARA Kepri) - The Batam, Bintan, Karimun (BBK) Free Trade Zone has not yet been able to maximally attract investment due to lack of attractive investment climate, former chairman of BBK's Free Trade Zone Council, Ismeth Abdullah said.

"Maximal services are not yet given to investors so that they still feel they are not fully convenient when making investment," Ismeth, who is also a former Riau Islands governor said here on Sunday.

He said that Government Regulation No.02/2009 had been revised into Government Regulation No. 10/2012 and it was now able to accommodate the investors' desire. Yet the regulation needed to be supported by a bylaw.

The local government has to make the issuance of business license easy to attract more investment, Ismeth said. "The free trade zone's council must increase its role so that it would be able to produce a strategic policy," he said.

He said that the free trade zone and port of Batam, Bintan and Karimun must be more competitive than that of Singapore through increasing its services.

"It should improve its competitiveness, investment climate and its council's services," he added.