Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto tried to convince American business giants that his government would not tolerate corruption while promising foreign investors that Indonesia would take good care of them.

Prabowo is making an introductory state visit to Washington at the invitation of US President Joe Biden. He also met with the leaders of companies who had long invested in Indonesia on Monday local time -- just a day before the historic bilateral talks with Biden. According to Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani, Prabowo had told these businesses that his government would beef up the fight against corruption, which is often considered a major deterrent to foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows.

“The strongest message that [Prabowo] has for these American investors is how he will have zero tolerance for corruption. To [Prabowo], corruption is just like cancer,” Rosan said.

“[Prabowo] even told the businesses to directly contact him if they encountered any acts of corruption or problem," Rosan said, while adding that Indonesia had vowed to cut its bureaucratic red tape.

The latest Corruption Perception Index report shows that Indonesia still struggles to fight corruption. Southeast Asia’s largest economy scored 34 out of 100 in the 2023 report. The lower the score, the higher the perceived level of a country’s public corruption. Indonesia also only ranked 115 out of 180 countries.

Mining giant Freeport and energy company Chevron were some of the American businesses that met Prabowo that day. The state-owned mining holding MIND ID currently holds 51 percent of Freeport’s shares, and the Indonesian government is in the process of securing an additional 10 percent stake. Chevron has a deal with the state-owned oil gas firm Pertamina to explore the geothermal energy potential in Way Ratai, Lampung. 

The US became the second leg of Prabowo’s first-ever foreign trip. Before flying to Washington, Prabowo departed from China with business deals worth around a whopping $10 billion. Government data showed that the US became Indonesia’s fourth-largest source of FDI in January-September 2024. American investors had put $2.8 billion into Indonesia over that period. China ranked third place, investing nearly $5.8 billion in Indonesia. 

The dialogue with the American businessmen took place at a US-Indonesia Society (USINDO) gathering. In a press statement following the USINDO talks, Prabowo said that he was happy to meet the US investors, saying that they had been “really involved in Indonesia’s economic development”. The meeting, however, did not result in any new business deals being signed.

“I ask them to continue to invest in Indonesia. ... These are all just general talks, so there is no signing [of new business deals]. But these companies have been long-time investors,” Prabowo said.