Indonesia remains a top destination for foreign retailers, a senior market expert of the Indonesian Retail Merchants Association (Aprindo) has assessed.

Being the world’s fourth most populous country, Indonesia has a growing middle class population and more diverse demand.

The biggest Southeast Asian economy has maintained a growth rate of over six percent for years. The growth only went down to 5.8 percent and 5.6 in the second and third quarter of 2013 respectively due to the world’s financial crisis that affected the country’s two largest trade partners, the US and EU.

The steady growth is a factor drawing foreign retail trademarks such as Carrefour (France), Aeon (Japan) and Lotte (the Republic of Korea). Two giants IKEA (Sweden) and Courts Asia (the UK) are also planning to enter the Indonesian market next year.

IKEA is set to open its first shop in Indonesia on September 17 next year and aims for 7-8 percent of Indonesia’s furniture market share while Courts Asia plans to open 10 outlets in the country in the next five years.

(Source: VNA)