20 May 2014
Governor Aceh, Zaini Abdullah,
welcomed domestic and foreign investment in this province as Aceh is very safe
and convenience for it.
“We will seek for
domestic and foreign investment for Aceh. Sometimes, misleading news about Aceh
threatens our attempt,” the Governor said during the opening of Aceh Investment
Promotion in Banda Aceh on Tuesday (20/5).
Governor said that in
the past five years, Aceh’s economy performance is very good. On 2013, the
realization of investment in Aceh was IDR 5.2 trillion (USD 447million). And for the first
quarter of 2014, the realization had reached Rp. 1.5 trillion (USD 129 million), ranked sixth in
Indonesia for investment realization.
He said that there
are misunderstanding on the condition in Aceh that creates unsecure and not
conducive image especially for investment and business.
“The most recent
issue is about the implementation of Shari-a Islam that was thought will
disturbed Human Rights and security condition to the business world,” he said.
He explained that the
implementation of Shari-a Islam in Aceh had gone well and had blend into the people’s culture. The implementation of Shari-a Islam only applies to the
Muslim, not for the non-Muslim.
“In fact, the people
of Aceh respected and protected the rights of non-Muslim. But the people of
Aceh hoped that people that came to this province will respect the people of
Aceh’s traditions,” he said.
Security Issue
In regarding to
security issue, Zaini Abdullah repeatedly reminds that Aceh is a safe and convenience
investment destination. The event was attended by business players that had
invested in Aceh for some time.
“We will listen to
their experience,” he said.
He added that during
an investment forum in Jakarta, in April 2014, the Head of Army Staff (Kasad)
General Budiman, said that investment in Aceh is safe and stable.
General Budiman added
that the role to protect business investors belongs to Provincial and Regional
Government. So, the government should be able to solve the disturbance towards
the investors.
“As the Head of
Governance in Aceh, I would like to state it again, we are determined to
provide security to the investors either domestic or foreign investor in doing
business in Aceh,” he said.
On that occasion,
Zaini also said that they have conducted various attempts to support and
realize investment in Aceh. The main focus of the investment is to create job
opportunities that will support the economy development and to improve the
people’s prosperity.
Government of Aceh
had also come up with several plans such as development of detailed project to
support investment and to shift the investment focus from primary focus to
secondary and tertiary sector that will add value to the product.
They also planned to
develop industrial zone and specialized strategic investment zone to expedite
the investment development; development of economy corridor through
upstream-downstream that connects to production central.
“We are aiming to prioritize
the finalization the development of six lanes of roads in the remote areas of
Aceh within the next three years,” he said.
Government of Aceh
also prioritizes improvement of investment climate by revising regulations and
policies.
“At the moment we had
finalized the discussion on general budget through Governor’s decree number
17/2012 and we are finalizing the Governor’s decree on investment incentive,”
he said.
Meanwhile, the Head
of Investment and Promotion for Aceh, Ir Iskandar MSc, in his opening speech
said that the event’s goal is economy development in the future.
Besides business
forum, this event was also used for Aceh’s product exhibition, Iskandar said.
