Bali, The Indonesia Sentinel - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno attended a dinner meeting with a Malaysian parliamentary delegation at the International Tourism Investment Forum (ITIF) 2023 to explore the interest of Malaysian investors to invest in the country's tourism and creative economy sectors.
Sandiaga revealed that investors are interested in investing in various fields.
"There are several potential investments in various fields ranging from hotels, restaurants, as well as creative economy products," said Sandiaga at the event which took place at Pondok Tempo Doeloe, Kuta, Bali, Wednesday (26/7/2023).
Investment interest from these investors is spread across various regions or tourist destinations in the country. Starting from Labuan Bajo, Bali, Lombok, and other Super Priority Tourism Destinations (DPSP), as well as several tourism special economic zones (KEK).
"Currently it is still being calculated (investment potential)," Sandiaga said.
However, the closest target that is expected to be realized soon is the construction of hotels in Labuan Bajo and Lombok with 150 rooms each.
Although included in the foreign direct investment (FDI) fund, Sandiaga encourages hotel operations to cooperate with hotel operators (chain hotels) from Indonesia. So that it has a broad impact on economic revival and job creation.
"We want to offer a chain hotel for the nation's children," said Sandiaga.
Malaysia itself is the top three countries that invest in the realization of tourism and creative economy investment in Indonesia. Therefore, the interest from Malaysian investors is expected to strengthen the target of tourism and creative economy investment realization in 2023 totaling 2.68 billion US dollars.
"Hopefully we can kick off this immediately so that it can bring business opportunities and job creation, which is targeted at 4.4 million in 2024," said Sandiaga.
Also present accompanying Sandiaga, Deputy for Industry and Investment of the Ministry of Tourism, Rizki Handayani.