The US has high standards for doing business, while China’s focus is predominantly on making profits, opined Prof Angel Damayanti, an international relations and defence expert from Jakarta’s Christian University of Indonesia.
Thus, she thinks attracting American investors to invest in Indonesia is harder.
“The US has certain political terms and conditions when wanting to do business,” opined Prof Angel, citing issues such as human rights or environmental protection.
“China does not have that many terms and conditions. It just talks about the economy; how much is the profit and the loss?
“So it appears more flexible, even though ultimately at the end there are certain terms and conditions too, for example, that there must be Chinese workers involved (in a certain project) or that the raw material must be from China, and others.”
Mr Hashim, Mr Prabowo’s younger brother, told Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK that the government had tried to woo Tesla to invest in Indonesia’s nickel industry and aspires to continue doing so.
“We’re trying to attract Japanese companies, American companies, Tesla.
“Our government is trying to woo Mr Musk and Tesla. That’s the aspiration,” Mr Hashim said in an interview aired earlier this month.
Under Mr Prabowo’s presidency, the government is likely to continue lobbying the US, but Prof Angel opined that as a businessman, Mr Hashim probably also knows that it is easier to strike a deal with China as it does not have the same requirements.
“If Mr Prabowo takes an economical approach, one that is not bothered with political or environmental terms and conditions, he will definitely lean towards China.
“Especially with China’s Belt and Road Initiative since 2013,” said Prof Angel.
Dr Broto noted that it is more straightforward to work with China as working with China essentially means working with the state.
However, when trying to work with the US, Indonesia cannot just approach the state but must also approach business groups.
“And business groups have different considerations when they want to invest.
“They consider security issues and legal certainty, among others,” said Dr Broto.
That is why Dr Broto said Mr Prabowo should work on certain things if Indonesia wants to approach the US. These could include ensuring a safe investment environment and an environmentally friendly industrial zone.
For example, when it comes to the downstream industry, the government should have a concrete plan so it is not reliant on China or to other countries.
Downstream operations are efforts to produce valuable products such as EV batteries instead of exporting raw minerals.
