Jakarta. A diplomat recently said that job creation was high up on the priority list when Emirati investors decide to invest in Indonesia: a country that still has millions of unemployed individuals. 

Over the past years, Emirati investors have come to Southeast Asia’s largest economy, although the United Arab Emirates (UAE) still has not cracked the top 10 of Indonesia’s source of foreign direct investments (FDI). The Emirati state-owned energy firm Masdar has even invested in Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar plant in West Java. As retired army general Prabowo Subianto took the helm in Indonesia, the UAE is open to bolstering its bilateral economic ties with the new government. This includes boosting investments that can create jobs. 

“Congratulations to Indonesia for the smooth transition of democracy. … The UAE will be very much keen to play a very central role when it comes to investment and cooperation for the prosperity of the Indonesians,” UAE Ambassador to Indonesia Abdulla Salem AlDhaheri recently told reporters in Jakarta. 

“Our president Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan has always said that any investment that [the UAE] makes has to create job opportunities for Indonesians,” AlDhaheri said.

The diplomat’s comment came not long after the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) updated the country’s unemployment rate. BPS recently revealed that as many as 7.47 million Indonesians were still unemployed as of August 2024. The unemployed population had soared to 9.77 million in August 2020 during which Indonesia was still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest figures reflected an open unemployment rate of 4.91 percent of the total workforce. 

Government data showed that UAE investments in Indonesia totaled $22.84 million so far this year as of September. The Emirati investors invested in 266 projects. From an investment value standpoint, the UAE only ranked 36th place in Indonesia’s rankings of top FDI sources in that period. 

Indonesia reported that it had attracted approximately Rp 1,261 trillion (around $80 billion) from foreign and domestic investors in January-September 2024. The investments created job opportunities for 1.87 million people.