Indonesia Bets on China to Turn Bali’s FZ Into an AI and Semiconductor Hub

FTZ News: Chinese companies accounted for 97 of the 481 firms operating in Indonesia’s special economic zones as of the second quarter of 2026, about one-fifth of the total. Officials cited the figure while describing plans to draw more technology activity to the Kura-Kura Bali zone, according to an account from the state news agency ANTARA.

Ali Murtopo Simbolon, acting secretary-general of the National SEZ Council, spoke at a China-Southeast Asia higher-education and industry forum held at the zone. He said the Tsinghua Southeast Asia Center there has already started research programs in physics and neuroscience and opened a semiconductor forum with Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The center intends to add work on artificial intelligence, digital research and related digital-economy projects. Indonesia runs 25 special economic zones covering roughly 23,800 hectares.

Those zones have drawn cumulative investment of about $20.7 billion and created more than 283,000 jobs. At Kura-Kura Bali itself, realized investment reached 1.8 trillion rupiah in the first half of 2026, supporting 2,173 jobs and recording about 132,000 visitors./.