A representative office is an office set up by a company overseas. Representative offices take care of their parent company’s business locally. It’s also an easy way to enter a foreign market. In Indonesia, there is a specific representative office for construction companies called Badan Usaha Jasa Konstruksi Asing (BUJKA).

Requirements and Prerequisites for BUJKA

Only foreign “large-scale” construction companies may open a BUJKA. The process to open a BUJKA starts with applying for a preliminary permit by obtaining the following sublicenses:

• ◉ Membership of Indonesian Contractors Association (Kartu Tanda Anggota/KTA)
• ◉ Certificate of Expertise (Sertifikat Keahlian /SKA)
• ◉ Certificate of Business in Constructions (Sertifikat Badan Usaha/SBU)

After getting the preliminary permit, the parent company can proceed with setting up the BUJKA by preparing the following:

• ◉ BUJKA license, obtained from the One Single Submission (OSS))
• ◉ Tax registration

The location of the office of a BUJKA is not specified by the law. You can open a BUJKA office anywhere as long as it is in a commercial building. There is also no set minimum capital requirement for a BUJKA.

Timeline to set up BUJKA

Setting up a BUJKA involves getting some documents together. The timeline in the table below shows how long it would take to establish a BUJKA with Emerhub.

Documents obtained	Timeline
Initial licenses of SBU, KTA, and SKA from Constructions association	1 month
Review of application and issuance of Government Levy to be paid	5 working days
Representative Office of Construction Company License/ BUJKA	3 working days
Tax registry	2 working days
TOTAL	1 month and 10 working days

Allowed activities for BUJKA

BUJKAs can conduct typical business activities like:

• ◉ Hire foreign experts
  • * A BUJKA can apply for work permits for its foreign employees
• ◉ Hire Indonesian staff
• ◉ Open a local bank account

BUJKAs can also perform construction-related activities including:

• ◉ Contact companies and institutions and collect information about available construction projects in Indonesia
• ◉ Participate in tenders.

The types of projects a BUJKA can work on must be complex, high-risk, and/or highly technical. Only local construction companies can work on smaller projects.

A BUJKA can work on construction projects if it has a local construction company (BUJK) as its partner. The construction company must be a limited liability company and 100% Indonesian-owned meaning it cannot have any foreign shareholders.

BUJKAs can participate in bidding even if they have not found a local partner for their prospective projects. Additionally, BUJKAs can partner up with different BUJKs for each project.