INDONESIA is offering new projects worth up to US$60 billion to Chinese investors in a bid to capitalize on China’s Belt and Road initiative, a senior official said.

Despite Indonesia’s strategic location, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has not been among the biggest beneficiaries of China’s trillion-dollar push to create a modern day Silk Road.

Its best-known Belt and Road project is a US$6 billion railway linking the capital, Jakarta, to the textile hub of Bandung, which has faced land procurement problems.

However, Jakarta has been in “structural communication” with China since last year on possible infrastructure projects worth a combined US$50 billion to US$60 billion, said Ridwan Djamaluddin, its deputy minister of maritime affairs.

Indonesia has proposed potential projects across the archipelago, while Chinese officials and experts have toured regional governments in search of projects to fund, he said.

“We are fully aware that we must not let this cooperation end badly,” Djamaluddin said.

Getting an agreement has taken longer than expected because Indonesia insisted on a business-to-business (B2B) structure for all its deals, refusing to take any government-to-government loans, he added.

“I understand we’re not as quick as other countries to tap into the fund because the fund owner will think longer on our offers,” Djamaluddin said.

He expected agreements in the next round of talks in April, after China responded to Indonesia’s most recent proposal last month, he added.

Any Chinese investment must employ Indonesian workers and have the most advanced, environmentally friendly technology and allow for transfer of technology, he said. (SD-Agencies)