Bali’s ‘big leap’: from holiday paradise to international financial centre

Indonesia is pushing ahead to transform the holiday island of Bali into an international financial centre, with its parliament set to debate new laws this week while a key conference set out targets and cited models such as Hong Kong as an example.

Minister of Investment and Downstream Industry Rosan Roeslani, who heads state-owned sovereign wealth fund Danantara Indonesia, said the financial centre was part of Jakarta’s efforts to establish itself as a trusted destination for investors seeking to grow their money in the long term.

Rosan, alongside other officials, Hong Kong’s Deputy Secretary for Justice Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan, sovereign fund operators, family office leaders and institutional investors were among about 120 participants at the inaugural Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday, organised by the South China Morning Post with Danantara Indonesia as partner.

“We will, like any other financial centre, have an independent court system, independent financial authority system, and also independent corporations,” Rosan said in his opening speech. “We strongly believe we will do this properly with the highest standard.”

Panellists at the summit weighed in on the collaboration between “patient” government capital and multi-generational family offices. Examples cited include the Hong Kong government-owned Hong Kong Investment Corporation; Danantara; Blue Pool Capital, the Hong Kong-based family office of Alibaba co-founder and SCMP chairman Joe Tsai; and Henderson Land Development chairman Peter Lee Ka-kit’s family office. Alibaba owns the SCMP.

SCMP publisher Tammy Tam said the conference was taking place at a pivotal time, adding: “[Indonesia’s] bold agenda of policy reform, industrial upgrading and sovereign-led investment – anchored by Danantara – is opening new corridors of opportunity where investment, family capital and entrepreneurship come together to drive growth at scale.”