Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - The Batam authorities have received investment applications worth US$9.850 million from six companies since early this month, an official said.

"The economic crises in Europe and West Asia are still affecting the global investment climate. But Batam as one of industrialized cities in Indonesia still attracts investors," the director of one-stop service and public relations unit at the Batam Management Board (BP), Djoko Wiwoho said here Thursday.

In March 2012, the Batam authorities approved expansion projects worth US$2 million, he said.

Since early this year, the agency received new investment applications worth US$24.240 million and applications for expansion projects worth US$4.1 million, he said.

Among the countries investing in Batam in the first quarter of this year were Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Italy, India, the United States, Germany, South Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and British Virgin Island, he said.

The investors were engaged among others in shipbuilding and maintenance industry, oil and gas mining business, distribution services, floating structure industry, civil engineering service, container transportation service and office building management, he said.

"With the addition of foreign investment, the value of investment in Batam from 1971 to March 2012 reached US$6,104.683,833.83 in 1,561 projects," he said. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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