Indonesia: Amazon plans to invest $951m in Indonesia over 10 years

American tech giant Amazon is planning a 14 trillion-rupiah (SS1.3 billion) foray into Indonesia, in another major investment in the South-east Asian digital economy. The plan was conveyed to Indonesian President Joko Widodo by Amazon Vice-President Werner Vogels during their meeting in Jakarta on Friday (Sept 21), according to local news reports.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who was also in the meeting, told Tempo news that the investment will be spread over a 10-year period. It will see the introduction of the firm's cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to the Indonesian market.

Cloud computing generally refers to hosting services and applications over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis, and the platform is seen as a key pillar for the growth of Indonesia's vibrant start-up scene. According to market research firm Statista, cloud computing spending in Indonesia is expected to hit US$1.3 billion (S$1.8 billion) by this year, up from just US$160 million in 2012.

But Amazon will face stiff competition from its Chinese rival Alibaba which opened its data centre - the first by a major cloud service provider - in Indonesia earlier this year as part of the company's plan to support local start-ups in the country...

Read More: The Straight Times