JAKARTA, July 28 — Indonesia Stock Exchange plans to woo foreign firms, in particular Australian miners, to list in Jakarta, by easing its listing regulations soon, a director said today.

The move could encourage a wide range of foreign companies to list their Indonesian units in Jakarta, making it easier for them to raise capital for expansion in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy while broadening the market’s appeal to portfolio investors.

“We are preparing a new regulation to make it easier for foreign companies to list here. We hope it will be issued soon,” said Wan Wei Yiong, a director of the exchange.

“There are some foreign companies interested in listing here, from Malaysia, and mining firms from Australia” he added.

CIMB Group Holdings Berhad, the Malaysian financial services group which controls Indonesian lender CIMB Niaga, in May said that it would seek a listing in Indonesia once the rules allowed it to do so.

Ito Warsito, president director of the exchange, told Reuters in an interview last year that he wanted to encourage foreign resources firms to list their local units as part of the exchange’s goal of increasing total market capitalisation. Warsito said at the time he would encourage US mining giants Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and Newmont Mining Corp to list their Indonesian units, which he estimated would be worth billions of dollars.

Indonesia has some of the world’s largest deposits of gold, nickel, tin, coal and copper, but foreign involvement in the natural resources sector has become a sensitive political issue, with calls for foreign firms to sell stakes to the government.

Freeport, which operates the huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua, eastern Indonesia, has come under attack in the past, while Newmont has had to reduce its stake in an Indonesian unit. — Reuters