There are two important segments within the group which we primarily focus on, namely the agribusiness sector and our position as a shareholder of PT Adaro Energy Tbk - one of Indonesia’s leading coal mining companies. With regards to the former of these two segments, our group owns 300,000 hectares of palm oil plantations and is also one of the biggest producers of rubber in Indonesia. Our upcoming strategy includes plans to carry out supply chain improvements facilitating a more efficient movement of goods from farmers to consumers. We also intend to conduct exploration projects for various commodities outside of our existing expertise in coal, rubber, and palm oil.

The current administration has positively positioned the economy with fuel subsidy cuts, infrastructure projects, and regular evaluations of government regulations. This ultimately leads me to believe that the next step for further progress should be a re-examination of leadership roles in Indonesia because these are positions with the potential to shape and influence the mindsets and actions of the rest of the population. We have seen the importance of having strong leaders at the head of government bodies and agencies, such as with the former Finance Minister Chairul Tanjung who alleviated the previously entangled process often associated with the nation’s logistics. Indonesia has a solid track record of appointing respectable central bank governors and finance ministers spearheading a steady macro finance climate and one of the lowest fiscal and GDP deficits in the world, and as such we are moving in the right direction.

The manufacturing industry has often missed out on talented individuals with the potential to move the industry forward, as these people often opt for careers that offer better salary and prestige such as in banking and marketing. Addressing this challenge is of considerable importance. From a business perspective, the government must also adopt a similar approach to the “Made in India” campaign that focuses on encouraging international firms to invest in Indonesia to create more domestically-produced goods. Indonesia has a large, competitive labour market, but lags behind on infrastructure and electricity reliability which are issues that need to be overcome to further support this industry.

Once the AEC begins to take shape, there are huge prospects related to market integration offering extensive possibilities for international cooperation and opportunities to engage with new players. It is my belief that there will be many positive impacts to be enjoyed by all ASEAN members and companies should not view the rise of regional businesses as a threat. The implementation of regional economic integration provides local companies with the option for business ventures in different countries, and this is something to look forward to.

Owning 300,000 hectares of plantation land is our company’s core strength and we are constantly looking for alternative measures to improve upon the way we maintain our main resource. We are confident in our company’s capabilities as we believe no competitors can compete with us thus the challenge has always been on improving what we have at the moment. In the future, we are looking to add value-added processing as part of our group’s operations, however, the focus is more on the upstream sector because that is where the majority of our current profits come from.

When partnering with an international company, we look for three points of consideration: technology acquirement, strengthening the capital base, and tapping into new markets. The aforementioned criteria stand as the main factors when deciding to work with foreign partners and ensure that we are selective in choosing to cooperate with well-established companies such as Kerry Logistics.

Each shareholder has their own leadership style, almost similar to DNA to some extent, which will be passed on to their holding company. We aim to become an exemplary business entity in this industry and maintain four qualities that we believe will assist us in achieving our targets: excellence, ethics, humility, and compassion.

Very few countries are like Indonesia in being so open to new foreign investors while also providing a good opportunity for the future.