It is worrying that of total foreign investment commitments in Indonesia, only about 50 percent becomes actual investment. The other half decides - after initially being interested - not to pursue investment in Indonesia. Although not in all cases, it is believed that Indonesia's difficult investment climate scares away part of the (potential) investment community, specifically bureaucracy (red tape) and the lack of sufficient hard and soft infrastructure.

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Indofood Sukses Makmur, one of Indonesia's largest food manufacturing companies, is optimistic that its corporate earnings will improve in the remainder of 2017 on the back of expansion plans as well as the optimization of both its performance and efficiency. In the first half of 2017 Indofood Sukses Makmur's sales rose by a modest 4.6 percent year-on-year to IDR 35.7 (approx. USD $2.7 billion).

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Indonesia's Industry Ministry hopes that the recent acquisitions of Karyadibya Mahardika and Surya Mustika Nusantara by Japan Tobacco Inc will have a positive effect on the domestic tobacco industry in Indonesia. The Japan-based cigarette manufacturing company bought 100 percent of the stakes in both companies for a combined price of USD $677 million. The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2017.

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While domestic cement demand remains bleak, Indonesia's cement producers managed to raise their level of production capacity utilization due to a surge in exports. However, export growth will only slightly improve the structural oversupply situation in Indonesia's cement market. With installed annual production capacity estimated at 103.8 million tons of cement, nearly 40 million tons of capacity remains unused.

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