Indonesia Just Cut PT PMA Capital Requirements by 75%. That's Not the Whole Story.

As of October 2025, the minimum paid-up capital for a foreign-owned company (PT PMA) in Indonesia dropped from IDR 10 billion to IDR 2.5 billion, under BKPM Regulation No. 5/2025. That's a genuine, meaningful reduction in the cost of entry, and if that's all you've heard, you'd be forgiven for thinking market entry just got a lot simpler.

It didn't. It got cheaper. Those are different things.

Registering the PT PMA and getting your NIB is not the finish line, it's the starting gate. Since December 2025, Indonesia's updated business classification system, KBLI 2025, determines which risk tier your specific activity falls into under the OSS licensing system, and that risk tier is what actually decides your remaining licensing burden. Two factories on similar premises, similar size, can face completely different requirements depending on what's actually rolling off the production line.

Medical equipment manufacturing is a clean example: on top of standard licensing, it can carry separate distribution approvals and manufacturing standards a conventional production line would never need. Beyond the activity-specific license itself, many manufacturers also need PB-UMKU, supporting business licenses layered on top, plus whatever certificates or registrations the relevant ministry requires for that specific product category.

And the investment threshold tied to your KBLI code hasn't moved with the capital cut: still more than IDR 10 billion per five-digit code, per project location. If you're manufacturing more than one product on a single production line, that calculation runs on its own separate formula entirely.

It gets more complicated again if you expand. Adding a new manufacturing activity to an already-established PT PMA can trigger a completely different risk classification, its own approvals, its own facility or technical-personnel requirements, and potentially a higher capital commitment, on top of needing to update your OSS and corporate records to reflect it.

If you're a manufacturer outside Indonesia assuming the lower capital requirement means an easier path overall, that's worth checking against your specific KBLI code before you commit to a production timeline. What are you actually manufacturing, happy to help map out what licensing path that specific activity actually requires.