Widodo and the accompanying high-level delegation at the LuLu Hypermarket in Khalidiyah Mall, Abu Dhabi. With them are Yusuffali and other senior LuLu Group executives.

Plans $500mn investment in the country over the next five years

The first LuLu Hypermarket in Indonesia will be opened in Jakarta by the year-end as the group has announced plans to invest $500mn in the country over the next five years.
The announcement came 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.
“With an initial investment of $300mn in the first phase, we plan to open some 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 help train them at all levels” said MA Yusuffali, LuLu Group managing director. 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” Yusuffali said.
Apart 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 is on a five-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to boost the country’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 were also part of Widodo’s delegation.
The Indonesian president was given a rousing welcome at the LuLu Hypermarket by Yusuffali; Saifee Rupawala, CEO; Salim MA, director; Rajmohan Nair, director – LuLu (Far East Operations); and a large number of Indonesian expatriates.
President Widodo and the accompanying delegation were taken to a guided tour of the hypermarket by Yusuffali who briefed him about specialties of the retail store.
The president later said his visit to LuLu Hypermarket was to see Indonesian products mainly agricultural products and asked Yusuffali to import more products from villages and towns in Indonesia.
A LuLu release said Widodo inquired about the prices as well of the various Indonesian products imported to Abu Dhabi.  
The LuLu chain currently operates some 117 stores across the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, and India.