More S’pore firms get help from ovt agency to enter Indonesia

Over 300 companies made the move in 2023 with support from EnterpriseSG

- Hariz Baharudin

JAKARTA - More Singapore companies are seeking help to enter and grow their business in Indonesia, attracted by the large market size and up-and-coming sectors in South-east Asia's largest economy.

Enterprise Singapore, the government agency that helps businesses internationalise, told The Straits Times that it supported over 300 Singapore companies in 2023 in their move into Indonesia.

This figure is more than the combined number of companies that made the move in the previous two years around 200 in 2022 and 100 in 2021, said EnterpriseSG director for South-east Asia Lim Jing Jun.

These companies come from a variety of sectors, including health, industrial infrastructure, green economy and digital economy.

Ms Lim added that in 2023, the projects in Indonesia clinched by Singapore firms generated about $111 million in overseas sales.

During the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders' Retreat in Bogor, West Java, on April 29, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesian President Joko Widodo noted that their countries continued to collaborate in emerging fields like the green economy and digital economy.

In 2023, bilateral trade reached US$69 billion (S$93 billion). Singapore recorded US$15.4 billion offoreign direct investment in the archipelago that year - a 15.8 per cent increase from 2022.