Investment in first quarter 2007 up 27.16 pct from previous year

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Capital Investment Coordinating Agency (BKPM) Chief Muhammad Lutfi said here on Tuesday investment in Indonesia in the first quarter of this year reached Rp40.59 trillion or up by 27.16 percent compared to the same period last year.

This meant investment growth had returned to a pre-crisis level, he said.

He said "the figure represents 30 percent of the government`s investment target for the year reaching 70 percent of the expected investment of 2005 totaling Rp172.77 trillion."

Lutfi said he believed the achievement would help push economic growth to meet this year`s target of 6.3 percent.

The target of investment for 2007 had been set at Rp83.08 trillion.

According to BKPM records, foreign investment grew by 15 percent from US$2.6 billion to US$2.99 billion from January to March.

Domestic investment meanwhile reached Rp13.68 trillion or rose 60.56 percent compared to the same period last year when the figure was Rp8.52 trillion.

Five sectors that had received the largest foreign investment were pharmaceutical and chemical industries (US$1.5 million), printing, paper and paper product industries (US$394.3 million), mining (US$252.3 million), food industries (US$189.8 million) and construction (US$149.3 million).

The five biggest sectors receiving domestic investment meanwhile were printing and paper industries (Rp3.8 trillion), metal, machineries and electronics industries (Rp2.9 trillion), food industries (Rp2.4 trillion), plantations and food crops cultivation (Rp1.73 trillion) and construction (Rp1.4 trillion).

Jambi enjoyed the biggest domestic investment (Rp3.7 trillion) followed by Southeast Sulawesi (Rp2.8 trillion), Jakarta (Rp2.4 trillion), Riau (Rp1.9 trillion) and East Java (Rp672.3 billion).

The largest foreign investment meanwhile was enjoyed by East Java (US$1.5 billion), followed by Jakarta (US$662.9 million), Riau (US$392.4 million), West Java (US$200.1 million) and Banten (US$86.5 million).

"Investment in East Java remains high meaning that it has not been affected by the Lapindo mudflow disaster," he said.

Lutfi said the largest foreign investment came from Britain totaling US$1.4 billion in 17 projects while the second largest investment was from Taiwan totaling US$398.4 million in 11 projects.

Australia came third with its investment reaching US$179.2 million in eight projects, followed by South Korea US$165,2 million in 46 projects and Japan US$149.1 million in 24 projects.