David Fickling, Columnist

Indonesia Does Its Best to Scare Off Investment

A ban on exports of nickel ore aims to boost homegrown industry and encourage foreigners to pour money in. It’s been tried before, and failed.

October 29, 2019 at 11:00 PM UTC

By David Fickling

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

If Indonesia wants foreign investment, this sure is a funny way to go about it.
Photographer: SOPA Images/LightRocket

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If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, what is Indonesia playing at?

The country announced Monday an immediate halt to exports of nickel ore, sending prices gyrating as traders tried to gauge the impact of a measure that was originally slated for 2022. We’ve been here before: From 2014 to 2016, Indonesia stopped nickel ore exports in an attempt to spur the creation of a homegrown metal-processing industry.