Now authorities want to expand benefits to businesses by reclaiming about 8,000 hectares of idle or confiscated land to offer to exporters or producers of import substitutes.
SINGAPORE (Feb 1): Indonesia wants to re-position its Batam island as an alternative shipping and manufacturing hub to Singapore with a potential to draw US$60 billion ($80.8 billion) in new investment.
Batam and nearby islands – located at less than 30 kilometers south of Singapore – have attracted about US$20 billion dollars of investment and they were declared a free-trade zone in 2007. It’s home to thousands of local and foreign firms producing goods from computers to oil rigs.
