A recently introduced deregulation package had seen 94 procedures to start a business slashed by almost half to 49
A World Bank flagship annual report on ease-of-doing-business had named Indonesia as one of the top five countries with most notable performance improvement in 2015/2016, The Jakarta Post reported.
Called “Doing Business”, the report sees Indonesia’s position jumped 15 places to 91st position, making it one of the best improvements among 109 countries in the survey.
The significant jump is reported to be based on improvements made in starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, paying taxes, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.
Also Read: Was Kaskus’ co-founder correct about the state of Indonesia’s digital industry?
Following the 12th economic stimulus package issued in April, Indonesia had scrapped many procedures to reduce the time and cost involved in starting a business. In total, 94 procedures had been slashed by almost half to 49 with the time spent on procedures dropped from 1,566 days to 132 days. Costs have also dropped from IDR92.8 million (US$7,036) to IDR72.7 million (US$5,500).
Apart from Indonesia, other Asian countries in the top five list are Brunei Darussalam and Kazakhstan. New Zealand was also named as the easiest country to do business in, toppling Singapore from the top spot for the first time in a decade.
The startup perspective
The year 2016 might have been a testimony to confirm the message that the World Bank report is saying. Tech companies such as Spotify, Netflix, and its “Asian versions” such as iflix and HOOQ had entered the market this year.
Also Read: My ancestors roll in their grave every time a startup wants to expand to Indonesia
For startups, in the past one month Indonesia has seen the launch of Polish fashion e-commerce startup Loko and Southeast Asian fashion e-commerce Zilingo into its market.
Indonesia has also seen an increased interest from Chinese investors, with plans to set up an angel investor club in the country. Groecery service Honestbee is also currently testing its service in the market.
But things have not always been running smoothly with foreign internet giants operating in Indonesia, such as Google. Since earlier this year, the Indonesian government has been pushing for the company to set up a permanent business entity in the country for taxation reason.
According to a report by Kompas, a “senior executive” at Google’s parent company Alphabet had met with representative at Directorate General of Taxation office in Jakarta. Both parties had declined to comment on the details of the talk, or even to confirm it.
Concerns have also been stated by fintech industry players, as mentioned during the recent Indonesia Fintech Festival & Conference. Clarity of regulation, talent shortage, and low financial literacy even among financial industry players themselves have been cited as the three main issues.
—
Image Credit: seita / 123RF Stock Photo
The post Attention, startups: World Bank report says it’s getting easier to do business in Indonesia appeared first on e27.