Several Indonesian cabinet ministers met with Chinese firms operating in the country, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said in an Instagram post late on Monday, after a Chinese industry group had written to the president seeking more business-friendly policies.
Here are some details:
- Bahlil, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa and Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani met with the Chinese ambassador and about 30 Chinese firms operating in Indonesia on Monday.
- “We are coordinating with them, what are their constraints. We want the companies to survive, and the state to get revenue,” Bahlil said.
- Most of the companies that attended the meeting were from the mining sector, he said.
- It was unclear whether the meeting was conducted in response to the letter.
- In a letter earlier this month to President Prabowo Subianto, copied to China’s embassy and seen by Reuters, the China Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia said Chinese firms faced “excessively stringent regulation, over-enforcement”, and alleged corruption and extortion by authorities.