JAKARTA - Indonesia’s finance minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said that he’s launching a new Task Force Debottlenecking to clear investment obstacles that slow economic activity. 

Speaking during the opening of the national business leaders’ meeting in Jakarta on December 1, Sadewa said that the task force will take real-time complaints from businesses and resolve them directly in regular hearings he’ll chair himself. 

“Going forward, we will improve this, so that we can gradually improve the business climate directly from the field. From there, we will correct the regulations. Not from regulations to the field, but from the field to regulations,” explained the Minister of Finance.

Debottlenecking is the process of removing obstacles or bottlenecks that slow down business operations or investments. 

In practice, it means identifying problems, including bureaucratic delays, regulatory hurdles, or logistical issues, and fixing them so projects can proceed smoothly.

And while debottlenecking mainly targets businesses, its ripple effects can shape where, how, and under what conditions people move for work.

Sadewa said Nvidia picking Johor over Indonesia for its data centers and AI investments is a warning sign that Indonesia should get its acts together if it hopes to reach 6% economic growth next year and climb toward 8% within five years. 

His confidence comes from experience resolving 193 debottlenecking cases worth IDR 894 trillion between 2016 and 2019.