Indonesia Offers 'Golden Visa' to Draw Foreign Investors, Lift Economy

Outgoing Indonesian President Joko Widodo launched a long-term visa scheme on Thursday in a bid to attract foreign investors.

The move comes at a time when many wealthy business people from mainland China have been keen to relocate to Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia given the big slowdown in the Chinese economy and the Communist Party’s increasing focus on “common prosperity” and negative attitude to wealth accumulation.

Widodo said investors could get a 10-year visa and access to Southeast Asia’s largest economy for amounts up to $10 million. A five-year “Golden Visa” requires individual investors to set up a company worth $2.5 million, while a 10-year visa requires a $5 million investment.

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Individuals not looking to set up a company must place $350,000 and $700,000 in the country – to buy Indonesian government bonds, public company stocks, or just bank deposits – to gain a 5-year and 10-year permit respectively.

Corporate investors are required to invest $25 million to get five-year visas for directors and commissioners. They need to invest $50 million to gain a 10-year visa.

If the investment is made in the new $32 billion capital city currently being built on Borneo island, $5 million will gain investors a 5-year visa and $10 million a 10-year visa, the immigration agency said.

Several countries offer similar investment visa schemes, but others, such as Canada, Britain and Singapore, have scrapped such schemes as their governments concluded they do not create jobs and could be a means to park speculative money.

Overseas citizenship scheme also being discussed

Jokowi, as the president is commonly known, said the visa was intended to lure “good quality travellers”.

“We’re launching the golden visa to make it easier for foreign nationals to invest in and contribute to Indonesia,” he said.

Silmy Karim, chief of the immigration agency, said Indonesia had granted golden visas to almost 300 applicants since it began testing the permits out last year, attracting $123 million.

Silmy also said the authorities are discussing ways to grant a special status for foreign nationals of Indonesian descent, modelled after the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), which allows foreigners of Indian ancestry to visit, work and live in India indefinitely. That could be issued by October, he added.

Silmy said the plan was intended to respond to calls for Indonesia to allow its citizens to hold another passport.

Widodo, who has served two five-year terms as Indonesian president, is due to step down on 20 October 2024, when he will be replaced by Prabowo Subianto. Jokowi’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka is due to become vice-president at that time.