PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Opening of Kendal Industrial Park, 14 Nov 2016

PM Lee Hsien Loong gave remarks at the Opening of Kendal Industrial Park in Semarang, Indonesia, on 14 November 2016

PM's remarks are also available here: http://www.pmo.gov.sg/mediacentre/pm-lee-hsien-loong-opening-kendal-industrial-park

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President Joko Widodo

Airlangga Hartarto, Minister of Industry
Mr Ganjar Pranowo, Central Governor of Java
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I am very happy to be here to officially open the Kendal Industrial Park with President Jokowi. Earlier today we had a Leaders’ Retreat with the President in Semarang. We had a good exchange and affirmed our excellent bilateral relations. The foremost issue that we discussed was how to strength our economic cooperation. Because our economies are closely intertwined. If Indonesia does well, so too will Singapore and we want Indonesia to succeed.

Singapore firms are keen to invest in Indonesia and we encourage them to do more.   Despite our small size, Singapore is consistently amongst the top investors in Indonesia. We were the largest foreign investor in Indonesia for the past two years and Singapore companies have traditionally investing in Jakarta and also in the Batam-Bintan-Karimun areas. Recently, they have gone beyond these areas to look at non-traditional areas like Central Java. Kendal Industrial Park, Kawasan Industri Kendal (KIK) is a demonstration of Singaporean companies’ confidence in Indonesia’s all-round growth. It is a joint venture project between two well-known companies in Singapore and Indonesia, Sembcorp and PT Jababeka. It is an excellent example of how Indonesia and Singapore can work together for mutual benefit.

KIK is Singapore’s first industrial park in Indonesia outside of Batam-Bintan-Karimun region. It is of significant scale, 2,700-hectare when completed. The first phase is already more than 800-hectare. It is still early days but KIK has already generated substantial interest, with 30 companies taking up tenancy agreements and making investments which are expected to generate at least 4,000 jobs. I am glad that Singapore’s small and medium enterprise, PT Tat Wai, is KIK’s first tenant. KIK will also promote industrial growth and development not only in Kendal but nearby Semarang as well as more broadly in Central Java. KIK is a good example of a win-win outcome. It shows what we can do by working together for the long term benefit for both our peoples.  

I am confident that under President Joko Widodo’s leadership, our bilateral friendship will continue to flourish and there will be many more win-win projects like KIK to come.

I therefore wish KIK every success as we declare the new industrial park open.

Thank you very much.