Indonesia

Although Indonesia’s retail sector was officially added to the government’s negative investment list in April 2014, thereby prohibiting foreign ownership of smallscale enterprises, foreign investment in large-scale operations – particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment – has seen a sharp rise in recent years. Most recently, global equity investor Warburg...

Representing the world’s fifth-largest tobacco market, Indonesia’s tobacco industry has soared in recent years, with manufacturers vying for market supremacy in a country with an estimated 85m smokers. The market has long been attractive to major international players such as Philip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT), which both witnessed sharp...

With new export bans, investment reforms and a push for value addition driving a flood of new projects in the country, Indonesia’s manufacturing sector is slated for significant expansion in the medium term. Automotive manufacturing in particular is set to benefit, with the government’s low-cost green car (LCGC) programme witnessing strong growth when it was rolled out in 2013...

Bolstered by rising domestic consumption and comparatively low labour costs, Indonesia’s textile industry has reported years of steady expansion, with the value of exports estimated at more than $13bn in 2014. However, wage hikes and low productivity have cut into profits, while rising power costs in 2014 have had an adverse effect on the sector’s growth forecast for 2015....