Top Investor Singapore to Work with Indonesia on One-Gate Export
Jakarta. Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said Tuesday that his country would work with Indonesia to make sure that Jakarta’s new trade regime would not dampen investors’ confidence.
President Prabowo Subianto’s centralized export policy, now in its second week, obliges commodity shipments to go through a state-owned agency: Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI).
Asked about the impact of the trade shake-up on Singaporean interests in doing business with Indonesia, Gan said that every individual country had “its own concerns and priorities”.
“[We] will work together with Indonesia to ensure Indonesia continues to be an attractive investment destination for Singapore and our investors,” Gan told reporters in Jakarta after a closed meeting with Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto. Gan added that his government would cooperate with Singaporean businessmen to ensure access to free flows of Indonesian goods and its market.
“That is one of the reasons why we have been discussing strengthening [bilateral] supply chain resilience,” Gan, who is also Singapore’s trade and industry minister, said.
Singapore is Indonesia’s largest foreign investor and among its major trading partners. Indonesia-Singapore trade totaled $10.8 billion in the first four months of 2026. Singaporean investments in the resource-rich economy reached $17.4 billion throughout 2025 and had hit at least $4.6 billion this year, official statistics showed.
Speaking at the joint press conference, Airlangga said that both countries had been facing “very dynamic geopolitical uncertainties”.
“However, we expect our bilateral cooperation to strengthen both of our countries’ economic fundamentals,” Airlangga said.
The centralized export scheme is now focusing on three strategic commodities: palm oil, coal, and ferroalloys. The current transition period “only” requires exporters to report their sales to DSI. By early next year, DSI will take over the entire process, including payment collection and handling the foreign buyers.
The Prabowo administration has been banking on this controversial move to curb under-invoicing and tax avoidance. Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has even accused some firms of selling palm oil to Singapore on the cheap for the commodities to be resold overseas at higher prices.
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