Indonesia targets more tourists from China, India, France
Red: Reiny Dwinanda
EPA
Foreign tourists in Bali. (Illustration)
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- China, India, and France have become potential markets for Indonesian tourism, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said.
"The number of foreign tourists from China, India, and France has increased," Yahya stated here on Tuesday.
The minister noted that tourists from the three countries are still targeting Indonesia's three main destinations, namely Bali (40 percent), Jakarta (30 percent), Riau Islands (20 percent), and the remaining 10 percent in other regions.
Arief explained that the Chinese tourists were fond of marine tourism and marine cuisine.
"Jakarta becomes a destination for Chinese tourists who love shopping. Riau Islands and Bintan are usually visited on weekends by Chinese tourists who want to buy clothes and goods.
Meanwhile, most of French tourists spend their holidays in Bali.
"Indian tourists go to Bali for celebrating weddings. Meanwhile, they go to Jakarta for business affairs," he remarked.
To accommodate more tourists, the government has prepared 10 new tourist destinations such as Bandung, Yogyakarta, Banyuwangi, Lombok, and Medan
The government is also developing 10 priority tourist destinations to attract more foreign tourists.
Yayha earlier described the 10 destinations as Indonesia¿s "New Bali," adding that they had been chosen by President Jokowi this year.
The 10 prioritized tourism destinations are Lake Toba (North Sumatra), Belitung (Bangka Belitung), Tanjung Lesung (Banten), the Seribu Islands (Jakarta), Borobudur Temple (Central Java), Mount Bromo (East Java), Mandalika Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), Komodo Island (East Nusa Tenggara), Wakatobi National Park (Southeast Sulawesi), and Morotai (North Maluku).
Arief remarked that the acceleration of the development of these destinations is aimed at improving the infrastructure and accessibility, particularly through the development of airports, seaports, roads, and energy, to promote it to investors.
"The development of the 10 prioritized tourism destinations is intended to support the efforts to achieve the target of 20 million visitors in 2019. It is a strategy to maintain double-digit growth. We have the projection that the 10 destinations will attract up to 12 million tourist arrivals," the tourism minister stated.
Antara
Indonesia, Swiss to exchange information on finance
10 hours ago | 746 Views
Director General of Taxes Ken Dwijugiasteadi (ANTARA /Akbar Nugroho Gumay)
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The governments of Indonesia and Switzerland have declared the readiness of both countries to implement the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI).
The signing of the joint declaration was undertaken by Director General of Taxes, Ken Dwijugiasteadi, and Swiss Ambassador to Indonesia, Yvonne Baumann, witnessed by the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia and Members of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority here on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani stated that it was important for Indonesia to be able to implement AEOI with Switzerland as it was one of the largest financial centers in the world.
"Financial information obtained from Switzerland and nearly 100 other countries will be used as a tax database to test the compliance rate of taxpayers. It is expected to encourage their awareness to fulfill tax obligations voluntary, especially in reporting their earnings and financial assets abroad which have not been reported," Sri Mulyani explained.
Through the joint declaration, Indonesia and Switzerland agreed to exchange financial account information automatically in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) starting from 2018, with the first exchange in 2019, protected by data security assurance according to international standards.
Both jurisdictions also stated that they will share information on the development of CRS implementation in each countrys domestic legislation and affirm the commitment to continue strengthening cooperation in the financial sector.
The joint declaration is required by Switzerland to enable the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) to implement AEOl to obtain the Swiss Parliament approval by the end of 2017.
On May 8, 2017, the Indonesian Government adopted a Government Regulation In lieu of Law No. 1/ 2017 on Access to Financial Information for Tax Interests.
It regulates the authority of the Directorate General of Taxation to receive and obtain financial information from financial institutions throughout Indonesia and the authority of the Minister of Finance to execute financial information exchange with authorities for other countries or jurisdictions.
(KR-LWA/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/111647/indonesia-swiss-to-exchange-information-on-finance