Almost everyone seems to be courting Indonesia right now. With the country’s massive growth potential in different sectors, it is no surprise that everyone wants to have a slice of the growth pie.
Today, Indonesia holds many vital areas that would push it further as one of Southeast Asia’s largest economies. And big companies want in.
$2 Billion Investment
Two of the big companies that see Indonesia’s big potential are Singapore’s Grab and Japan’s Softbank.
With a $2 billion dollar fund from Softbank, Grab will invest heavily on Indonesia’s most crucial areas with big potential for growth. These areas are digital infrastructure, healthcare, and electric vehicles.
The Future is EV
The investment in electric vehicles will complement the two companies’ plan to establish a robust EV transport network system in the country. What would further complement this significant project is their plan to develop geo-mapping solutions to streamline its future EV transport network.
The reason for this ‘electric’ push is Indonesia’s anticipated milestone policy on electric vehicles. Once passed, the policy mandates that 20 percent of vehicles in Indonesia must be electric-powered by 2025.
The growth potential that comes with this policy is no secret for everybody. Recently, Japan’s Toyota and South Korea’s Hyundai have expressed interest in investing in Indonesia. Toyota has already committed to invest $2 billion dollars in the Southeast Asian nation for the next five years.
Grab’s Other Investments in Indonesia
Aside from its highly successful taxi-motorcycle hailing service in the country, Grab also offers other consumer services such as digital payments and food delivery service.
Thanks to Softbank’s $2 billion dollars funding, Grab has enough billions to invest more in other sectors. Two of their initial investments are in healthcare and micro-entrepreneur solutions sectors.
Last year, Grab announced that it has partnered with Ping An Good Doctor, a Chinese online-to-offline (O2O) healthcare servicing platform. The partnership aims to deliver an artificial intelligence-powered service that provides medicine delivery, online medical consultations, and appointment bookings.
Grab also aims to double Indonesia’s number of micro-entrepreneurs through its Grab-Kudo. It has created 5 million so far.
Billions of dollars are pouring in Indonesia’s economy right now. Thanks to foreign investors that anticipate explosive growth in a country that is dubbed as the ‘Emerald of the Equator’.
But you know that the country’s growth potential is even bigger than you think if investors are more than willing to invest more.
To quote Softbank’s Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son have said: “I’d like to invest more.”
Also read: Grab to Launch Micro-Insurance Product for Critical Illness
