start a business in indonesia

How to Start a Business in Indonesia: A Step-by-Step Guide

  • InCorp Editorial Team
  • 19 October 2016
  • 2 reading time

Start Your Business in Indonesia, Now!

Right now, many entrepreneurs all across the world are planning to evolve their business paths to Indonesia. If your company can reach the succeed, the rewards of entrepreneurship are well worth the obstacles you’ll face on the road to success. Indonesia is a country with enormous potential that offers the benefits and challenges at the same time (read Why Indonesia?).

We prepare you “The Easy Step-by-Step Guide of How to start a Business in Indonesia”

Are you ready to start your business? Go through step by step guide of what you need to do make it happen (Click to each article).

  1. Brainstorm ideas through Market Research and Analysis
  2. Prepare Your Product/Service
  3. Manage every for government law and regulation
  4. Choose your local partners
  5. Determine your office location
  6. Recruit the Employee
  7. Manage your finance for payment, tax, and salary
  8. Manage your overall company overview
  9. If possible, have mutual partnership with local distributor or local partner for company growth
  10. Grow your business consistenly

If you need help on your way to success in Indonesia, we are here with many experiences (read Why Cekindo? or Our Clients Testimonials).

For contacting us via email, you can fill this form and our consultant will contact you shortly

Daris Salam

COO Indonesia at InCorp Indonesia

With more than 10 years of expertise in accounting and finance, Daris Salam dedicates his knowledge to consistently improving the performance of InCorp Indonesia and maintaining clients and partnerships.

Get in touch with us.

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Frequent Asked Questions

Yes, this mainly applies to import and export businesses. Instead of establishing a company, you can use an under-name import service, an importer of record.

It should take between 30 to 45 days.

As their names suggest, the main differences between the three business kinds in Indonesia lie in the businesses and the purpose of their incorporation. Local company owners (PT) must be Indonesian citizens, as even 1 percent of foreign ownership is not allowed. This type of company is not limited to entering any business field, and restrictions on incorporation are not so tight. On the contrary, a foreign-owned company (PT PMA) is open to international investors, but the maximal percentage of foreign shares differs in various business sectors. Contact InCorp to get the most updated information on the Negative Investment List. International investors tend to open representative offices as a first step to understanding the Indonesian market before setting up a limited liability company. This type is used for marketing and promotion activities and needs the right to sell directly and receive income.

There are three things business owners need to consider before setting up a business in Indonesia: the type of business entity, capital requirements, and regulations.

Indonesian regulations separate local companies from foreign companies. Generally, foreign-owned companies (PT PMA) have more limitations than their local counterparts (Local PT). However, to pursue more foreign direct investment in the country, the government has taken several bold initiatives to increase the ease of doing business and provide numerous attractive incentives for foreign investors.