By Lynn Lee, Indonesia Correspondent

If Indonesia's new investment czar has his way, he will get a red carpet to replace the red tape that investors have long had to grapple with.

Mr Gita Wirjawan, the new chief of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, has been tasked with ramping up the country's investment dollars so that it can post headline 7 per cent economic growth by 2014.

He has a three-pronged strategy in mind to make the investment climate more attractive to domestic and foreign businessmen.

It is hoped that they will pump in some 2,100 trillion rupiah (S$310 billion) each year.

Mr Gita, the former boss of investment bank JP Morgan in Indonesia, is well aware of dissatisfied investors who complain about corruption as well as the lack of sufficient infrastructure and investment?regulations that leave them uncertain about the fate of their money.

But he is bullish about Indonesia's achievements of late. The country is in a position of political and economic stability.

Among other measures to improve business conditions, the Indonesian government is continuing to invest heavily in education to improve the quality of its labour force.

'You can't talk about the investment climate unless you address education because that will underpin what is to come,' he said.

In short, the country is on a positive growth trajectory, a fact that would be attractive to any investor, he added.

Indonesia's gross domestic product is tipped to hit4.3 per cent this year, making it the fastest-growing economy after China and India.

?'We might have got into a situation (before) where we made some promises we were unable to deliver.

'We certainly would like to get into a new situation where we will make certain promises that we hope to over-deliver,' he told The Straits Times yesterday, fresh from his inauguration in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old was in Singapore with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings this weekend after an official visit to Singapore leaders on Thursday.

In the next three months, the investment board will push on with efforts to create a one-stop permit process so that investors do not need to go to individual ministries to get their paperwork done. This will trim the cost and time they spend on licensing processes.

The board is also working to automate the process so that applications can be filed online.

And thirdly, Mr Gita wants to identify what he calls 'champions', or regions in Indonesia which are conducive to more investment.

He declined to name these regions, but said that between five and 10 could be singled out easily.

These would be areas with the necessary human resource and infrastructure base to host further development, with the hope that other regions would use them as models.

Responding to criticism that investment, especially foreign, in Indonesia has not enriched the life of the masses, Mr Gita said the Indonesian government will have a sensible policy in place to prioritise the country's needs and improve the lives of Indonesians, even as it?ensures that investors get returns.

While Indonesia, which has rich gas and mineral reserves, will woo investment in the energy sector, it will make sure that 'energy utilisation is first and foremost for Indonesians', he said.

Other priority sectors for investment are infrastructure, food security and agriculture.

Singapore has been the largest investor in Indonesia in the past few years, he said, adding that Indonesia has been fortunate to also have long-term investments from other Asean states.

Singapore's interests in Indonesia include manufacturing, trading and telecommunications.

These are largely located in the greater Jakarta area and on Batam, Bintan and Karimun islands.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.