# Singapore's Investment in Indonesia: Transfer Pricing and Phantom FDI - Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2115963374303654072 - Source account: [@ariestarico2](https://x.com/ariestarico2) - Source language: Indonesian - Target language: English - Duration: 6:46 - Published: 2026-10-30 - Machine translated. Check the original before quoting. - Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi - Original-language version: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/id/kritik-investasi-singapura-di-indonesia-transfer-pricing-dan-investasi-semu.md ## Transcript [0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi) Watch a clip of Singapore's former Prime Minister at the May Day Rally in 2015. [0:06](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=6) We are already Indonesia's biggest foreign investor. [0:09](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=9) They are fifty times bigger than us. Two hundred and fifty million people. [0:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=13) From time to time, they remind us of it. [0:15](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=15) To this day, I still remember it clearly, and frankly, I feel offended because, as the former head of the Investment Coordinating Board, BKPM, I understand how our country is viewed by Singapore as a beggar nation. [0:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=30) That is a wicked and misguided mindset. Let me explain. [0:34](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=34) This Singaporean leader's mindset is based on arrogance because the amount of investment from Singapore in Indonesia has indeed been the highest for years. [0:44](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=44) This amount makes them feel entitled to state that they matter more, even though their country is 50 times smaller. [0:52](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=52) Yet the facts are the opposite. How could Singapore, which has no natural resources, feel superior and support us, unless they deliberately designed a system so that the profits from wealth extracted from Indonesian soil, [1:06](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=66) amounting to three thousand to four thousand trillion rupiah, along with its profits and foreign exchange, are parked to sustain Singapore? [1:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=73) How do they do it? They use incentives and tax agreements that can now be questioned and must be accounted for. Why must there be tax agreements that harm us like this? [1:29](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=89) And who must be held accountable? Many Indonesians have heard the term transfer pricing, but they do not yet understand this model of economic crime. [1:39](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=99) Let me illustrate it with a very simple analogy. [1:43](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=103) Singapore markets itself with headquarters and global trader status, which facilitates transfer pricing practices. [1:49](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=109) Imagine an entrepreneur mining tin, coal, or processing palm oil in Indonesia. [1:55](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=115) From Indonesia, he first sells the goods to his shell company in Singapore for 100. [2:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=120) Once in Singapore, that shell company sells the same goods to the global market for 250. [2:07](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=127) Our country, Indonesia, should receive the full tax from that price of 250 to build schools, hospitals, and world- class technology universities on par with NTU for Indonesian children. But with the special status in Singapore, [2:23](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=143) on the profit difference of 150 that transferred there, where they pay much lower taxes or no taxes at all. lower taxes or no taxes at all. [2:33](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=153) The profits are then parked in Singapore. [2:36](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=156) When they need to open new land for palm oil plantations or mining sites in Indonesia, they use those Singaporean entities to reinvest in Indonesia. [2:46](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=166) So, in fact, these are Indonesians themselves or other foreigners who use Singaporean entities to invest in Indonesia. [2:57](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=177) That is what the IMF report refers to as Phantom FDI, or phantom investment. Genuine Singaporeans or genuine Singaporean money may account for less than a quarter of what is directly invested in Indonesia, because the rest is money from Indonesia's own natural resources being recycled. [3:19](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=199) They call this round tripping. After making huge profits from our land, they list on the Singapore Exchange because the incentives are extraordinary, sometimes even better than in Hong Kong. Of the three palm oil corporate groups whose plantations are on Indonesian land alone, their market value on the Singapore Exchange reaches nearly [3:38](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=218) two hundred trillion rupiah. And if all companies based on Indonesian assets listed there are combined, the total market value exceeds seven hundred to eight hundred trillion rupiah. [3:51](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=231) After the accumulated profits from those companies are disbursed as dividends to individuals, they ensure these personal dividends are reinvested and do not leave Singapore. [4:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=243) By dangling the carrot called a family office, tax- free by up to seventy- four percent our declaration of overseas assets during tax amnesty turned out to be piling up in Singapore. [4:17](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=257) And the most painful part just happened this month in the palm oil corruption case of Surya Darmadi. [4:24](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=264) Let's use common sense. The forests that were destroyed and burned are in Indonesia. [4:29](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=269) The crime was committed on Indonesian soil, and the Indonesian people suffered losses of tens of trillions of rupiah. [4:36](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=276) But when the proceeds of that crime flowed into Singaporean banks and the case was uncovered, the Singaporean courts instead confiscated and took one point ninety-six trillion rupiah for themselves. [4:50](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=290) What business does Singapore have taking the Indonesian people's money? [4:53](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=293) This is where the true face of their ecosystem becomes visible clearly. When business is profitable and conducted properly, Singapore that take advantage of it. [5:02](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=302) When they are proven wrong and violate the law, they trample us too, and the money is taken by Singapore as well. In the previous video, I illustrated that they are kiasu, two people walking and both wanting the middle. [5:15](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=315) That completes my analogy. Eat, drink, and sleep in Singapore. [5:20](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=320) Dump trash and defecate in Indonesia. And what Singapore's former Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said was like the finishing touch, spitting in our living room. [5:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=330) I made this content only to stir our patriotic spirit as a sovereign nation, not as losers or traitors to the nation who are always paid to side with foreign countries. [5:41](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=341) Singapore must know that Indonesia today is not the Indonesia of 1998, whose foreign exchange reserves were low, so its economy fragile. Today, Indonesia's economy is solid, our democracy is advancing, our society is open. [5:53](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=353) The main requirements to become a developed nation are all in place. [5:58](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=358) We ask Singapore, are they ready for complete openness? [6:02](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=362) Only time will tell, because from afar, we can see your openness is very superficial. [6:07](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=367) In an era of openness and collaboration, where the winner takes all, Indonesia will begin downstreaming. [6:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=373) I have a feeling Indonesia will cancel all foolish agreements, including the foolish 2020 tax treaty that brings no benefit to Indonesia. [6:24](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=384) Indonesia will also reform itself from within. [6:26](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=386) We have much homework to complete, such as infrastructure, bureaucracy, efficiency, and much more. [6:33](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=393) All of this is guaranteed by democracy. If they fail, they will not be elected again. [6:37](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=397) Singapore, 50 years, one party. Keep fighting, PAP. [6:41](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/CstCYlrEmnXK/en/singapore-s-investment-in-indonesia-transfer-pricing-and-phantom-fdi?t=401) Just below the sky, but certainly at the edge of the abyss.