The Lulu Group will make its Indonesian debut by opening the first hypermarket in the capital city of Jakarta by this year end.

The announcement was made during the visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo to Abu Dhabi. He visited LuLu Hypermarket along with a high level delegation at Khalidiyah Mall in Abu Dhabi.

The Indonesian president is on a 5-day state visit to three Middle East countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar — to boost Indonesia’s ties with the three countries, particularly on investment, trade and Indonesian migrant worker protection.

Coordinating Minister of Economy Darmin Nasution, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong, Minister of National Development Plans Sofyan Djalil, State Secretariat Minister Pratikno, Head of the Investment Coordinating Board Franky Sibarani, and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung are also part of the president’s entourage.

"With an initial investment of $300 million in the first phase, we plan to open 15 hypermarkets by the end of 2017 and a central logistics and warehousing facility in Jakarta. These projects are likely to generate more than 5,000 job opportunities for Indonesians and to train them at all levels,” said Yusuffali M.A., MD of LuLu Group. “The fact that we are going to Indonesia with our halal hypermarket concept is giving us the encouragement to look for a wider market segment there,” added Yusuffali.

Aside from Jakarta, Lulu intends to open hypermarkets in Bandung, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta. “We also plan to set up contract farming to ensure continuous supply of high quality products and support the Indonesian agriculture sector,” Yusuffali added.

The Indonesian president was given a rousing welcome at the hypermarket by Yusuffali, Saifee Rupawala, CEO, Salim M.A., director, Rajmohan Nair, director, Lulu Far East Operations, and a large number of Indonesian expatriates.