During the 2026 China–Southeast Asia Forum on Higher Education and Industry Cooperation, hosted by the Kura-Kura Bali Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Ali Murtopo Simbolon, Acting Secretary-General of the National Council for Special Economic Zones and Deputy Coordinator for Trade and the Digital Economy at Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, announced that the government is working to make the Kura-Kura Bali Special Economic Zone a regional hub for artificial intelligence research, semiconductor development and digital services, leveraging expanding technological and economic ties with China.
He stressed that the Tsinghua Southeast Asia Center can serve as a bridge connecting China, Southeast Asia and the world; it has already launched research programs in physics and neuroscience and a dedicated semiconductor forum in partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing. This direction is supported by growing Chinese participation: 97 of the 481 tenant entities in Indonesia’s SEZs were Chinese enterprises in the second quarter of 2026, across 25 zones with cumulative investment of US$20.7 billion and over 283,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, Kura-Kura Bali recorded realized investment of about US$101 million and 2,173 jobs in the first half of the year. Jakarta and Beijing are also expanding their partnership through the Two Countries Twin Parks (TCTP) initiative, extending cooperation from investment to technology transfer, joint research, human resource development and national industrial capacity building.