Indonesia’s parliament plans to overhaul several dozen tax and labour market laws as south-east Asia’s largest economy strives to boost foreign investment and grow its manufacturing base.
A so-called Omnibus bill — whose draft Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, said would be completed in the first 100 days of his second term — aims to amend 79 laws and 1,244 articles in an effort to reduce overlap and inconsistency in the country’s legal system.
Mr Widodo, has made the new law a priority as he seeks to increase the ease of doing business and foreign investment to help the economy grow beyond an average rate of 5 per cent.
The bill, due to be discussed in parliament this week, has sparked protests in the capital Jakarta, amid fears that it could lead to workers’ rights being eroded.
Raising investment inflows could help galvanise the country’s manufacturing sector, which, as a share of gross domestic product, shrank 10 percentage points between 2002 and 2018 to about 20 per cent, acco