Japan has pledged a commitment to invest $4 billion in Indonesia's inaugural sovereign wealth fund, marking a speedy development that may hold the key for the Southeast Asian country's infrastructure ambitions.
Japan was the second country to pledge a concrete amount to the fund after the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the United States's financing arm, did so last month.
"JBIC is ready to support SWF Indonesia's funding of $4 billion, twice as much as what was pledged by DFC," Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said in a statement after a meeting with Maeda Tadashi, the governor of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in Tokyo on Friday as reported by The Jakarta Globe.
Indonesia set to establish the fund to raise an alternative funding source for its ambitious infrastructure projects in the next few years. The 2020 Law on Job Creation mandated the government to establish the fund, and it has been working toward a goal to set the fund up and running next year. The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment said a team would work closely to follow up the JBIC commitment. The ministry expects to see JBIC investment in the fund in the first quarter of next year.
(source: The Jakarta Globe)