The Republic of Indonesia is a country in South-East Asia, situated between the Indian and Pacific Ocean. It is the world´s largest island country, constituted of more than 13.000 island, bigger and smaller ones. With more than 250 Million inhabitants it is one of the most populous countries of the world, most of the people are living on the island of Java. Indonesia´s main religion is the Islam. There were early settlements found of the “Java Man” dating back 1.5 million years. The ideal location of Indonesia fostered inter-island and international trade, reaching out to India and China. During the 13^th Century the Islamic influence became more important, spreading all around the country and it´s many islands. The colonial era started in 16^th Century when Portuguese ships arrived first, the Dutch and British followed. The most active Dutch East India Company gained foothold in Batavia which is nowadays known as Indonesia´s capital Jakarta. The company’s trade included but was not limited to nutmeg, black pepper, cloves,  cinnamon, coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco, rubber, sugar and opium. The Japanese occupation of the islands during WWII ended the Dutch influence and finally, after the surrender of Japan Ir. H Sukarno declared the independency of Indonesia and became its first President, serving from 1945 to 1967. Nowadays, Indonesia has an elected Parliament and President. It is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. Indonesia´s economy is the world’s 16th largest by nominal GDP.

Indonesia is certainly one of the emerging markets in Asia and in the World.  It still depends mostly on the domestic market and government budget spending. Many enterprises are state-owned, but since the 1990s, more than ¾ of the economy has been controlled by private Indonesians and foreign investors. The economy has a broad basis, still building on agriculture (e.g. crops, fish and forestry), oil & gas as well as mining, manufacturing (e.g. food, transport equipment, textiles, chemicals), construction, trade and transport, telecommunication and financial services. Especially manufacturing and services are growing significantly shaping Indonesia to one of the rising economies in South-East Asia. In the construction sector there are major projects under way, e.g. the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail, the Trans-Java toll road, the Kalibaru Port and the Jakarta MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). The latter is intended to reduce the massive traffic jams in Jakarta, wasting many people´s time and adding to the pollution in and around Jakarta. The annual growth rate in Jakarta is 1,2% for commercial vehicles, 12,5% for passenger cars and 36% for motor cycles. The Groundbreaking ceremony happened in 2013 and phase 1 shall be finished next year. The overall cost for phase 1 of the project is 125 Billion ¥. An automated train will operate on a 27 km line with 7 elevated stations and 6 underground stations for approximately 180.000 people per day. Later a South-North line will be added with another 13 kilometers. The project is funded by foreign loans and requires a comprehensive coordination between central and local government as well as all involved parties. One of the main challenges in Indonesia is the land acquisition for such projects…

IAMPI is the Indonesian Project Management Association and member of IPMA. It exists since 1999 and has about 3000 members in the country. It offers training and certification in the field of project management and is closely connected to  governmental agencies for setting standards in the countries. It shares experiences every second month on different topics. In July IAMPI conducted a conference in Jakarta  under the theme “Enhancing the national project capabilities through portfolio, program and project management” in which IPMA offered insights in the development activities of other countries and shared own standards, such as IPMA ICB, IPMA OCB and IPMA PEB.