Indonesia’s Finance Minister has announced that he will be giving corporate investors a tax holiday in the hope that this will encourage extra investment. The country has set itself a target of USD 1trillion to find over the next five years, and are looking for a mixture of domestic, overseas, public and private sector money.
The precise measures have not yet been announced and indeed may not yet have been decided by the Indonesian government. However, Finance Minister M S Hidayat has said that the measures are to exist for five years, and will be targeted on a case by case basis to ensure that investment is directed towards the right industries.
Clearly Indonesia is aiming this measure in the first instance at the corporate sector but the proposal sends a clear message that the country is open for business.
Mauritius has also given a clear indication that it is looking for more foreign money this week. The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) is reinventing itself to widen the class of investments that will be within its remit. The exchange now permits professional and specialist collective investment schemes and closed-end funds.
According to SEM’s CEO, the exchange seeks to continue to expand its domestic equities base but also to open itself up as a multi product based internally focussed offshore investment hub.
In recent years things have been looking healthy in Mauritius. When European trade preferences started to move away from the island in 2000, Mauritius found that it could not rely on revenue from sugar exports alone. Taking a long term look into the future, the island sought to reposition itself as a centre for business outsourcing and offshore investments.
Notwithstanding the global recession, Mauritius’ financial services industry is reported to have grown by an average rate of 7.6% in the last four years. Perhaps the new listing rules will generate an even better rate of growth.
