Jakarta appeals to Australian superannuation funds for investment

One of Indonesia’s most powerful businessmen has urged Australian superannuation funds to put the country on their investment map.

Arsjad Rasjid, head of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, has urged Australian superannuation funds to put the country on their investment map.

One of Indonesia’s most powerful businessmen has urged Australian superannuation funds to put the country on their investment map ahead of an exploratory trip to Jakarta and Singapore by some of the industry’s biggest investors this week.

Arsjad Rasjid, head of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and president of Indika Energy, a major Indonesian coal and energy producer, told The Australian two-way trade and investment was still frustratingly low despite the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement coming into force two years ago. But he hoped a two-day trip by the heads of some of Australia’s largest super and industry investors would help turn that around.

“Australia and Indonesia ties must move beyond the traditional economy of livestock and minerals,” said Mr Rasjid, who also chairs the advisory board to the B20, a meeting of key business leaders to be held in Bali alongside the G20 leaders’ summit this November.

IFM Investors chairman Greg Combet. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

While the two countries together had the potential to be “the food supplier to the world” with greater agribusiness co-operation, it was through infrastructure opportunities that Indonesia’s chief investment body and its peak business group hoped to pique the interest of key Australian investors this week.

“Indonesia should absolutely be on the map of Australian super funds. We have a lot of infrastructure investment (but) filling the infrastructure gap here will require very significant private capital, what we call blended finance,” he said. “We hope to offer a blended finance product to Australian super funds. This is something we are all working on together; the chambers (of industry), the government and of course Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, INA.”

The influential delegation – which together manages trillions of dollars of super savings – will be led by Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones and Greg Combet, former Labor frontbencher and now chief of IFM Investors, which invests on behalf of more than 574 institutional investors.

It comes a fortnight after Mr Rasjid’s own visit to Australia to drum up trade and investment enthusiasm, and to lay the groundwork for this week’s visit.

Representatives of the Future Fund, Macquarie Asset Management, Aware Super, AMP Capital, Australian Super, Cbus, UniSuper and the Queensland Investment Corporation will meet the Indonesian Investment Authority, business leaders and government ministers on Monday and Tuesday before flying to Singapore.

Mr Combet said both governments recognised the need to increase trade and investment, and that fund managers were interested in infrastructure investment opportunities.