Jakarta, October 28, 2022 – Some of Indonesia's key business players and investors recently met with government decision-makers in a workshop on SDG Investor Map to unpack investment potential that could fast-track the country meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNDP’s SDG Impact and the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), the workshop was a critical step in mobilizing much needed funds to close the USD 4.7 trillion SDG financing need in Indonesia.

The two-day workshop, titled ‘SDG Enabling Investments in Indonesia: A Sectoral Perspective,’ was also supported by the Centre for Impact Investment and Practices (CIIP) at the Temasek Trust.

The workshop provided opportunities for investors to unpack and deep dive into the SDG Investor Map — launched last March—which has identified investment opportunities in 18  areas across six SDG sectors. The investors and business players represented the fields of education, healthcare, agriculture, renewable energy, financial Services, and infrastructure sector and included Temasek Trust, Mandiri Capital Indonesia, East Ventures and AC Ventures among others.

Vivi Yulaswati, Head of the National SDGs Secretariat, Bappenas highlighted the importance of impact investing. 

“Impact investing markets offer diverse and viable opportunities to advance social and environmental solutions, to bring the additional finance in achieving the 2030 Agenda,” she said adding that the private sector has a critical role to address the gap in SDG funding which has increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nonetheless, the public and private sector partnership must find a way to come up with a ‘win-win’ approach according to Indra Darmawan, Deputy Chairman for Investment Planning, Bappenas.

“The challenge remains at incentivizing profit-seeking businesses to internalize SDGs in their business operations. The best way to do this is to push companies to internalize the cost of their activities, and that going green is also good for their bottom line,” he said.

Devahuti Choudhury, SDG Impact Specialist, Asia Pacific at UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub, called on the importance of sustained and closer collaboration to leverage the SDG Investor Map.

“The SDG Investor Map is only the first step in starting the conversation around pooling resources that can bring a strong investment and impact thesis together for businesses, investors and policymakers,” she said adding “We hope to create strong partnerships that can help create pathways to put sustainability at the heart of investment decision making in Indonesia.”

The outcome of the discussions will be valuable for the formulation of SDG acceleration policies, since Indonesia cites the strengthening of private sector engagement as one of its key drivers for meeting the 2030 Agenda in Indonesia’s Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) that is being developed under the coordination of Bappenas.

The launch of the SDG Investor Map last March is part of Indonesia’s larger pioneering efforts to narrow the SDG financing gap. In collaboration with UNDP through the UN’s Joint Programme, Indonesia last year raised EUR 500 million after issuing its first SDG Bonds, to expedite investments in health, digital infrastructure and education. At the same time, Indonesia has so far raised at least USD 5.8 billion via the sale of Green Sukuk since 2018 for climate-related projects.

Text by Anisa Indah Pratiwi and Kamal Salehin

Edited by Tomi Soetjipto