Mahakam Ulu · East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Invest in Mahakam Ulu

This is the English gateway of DPMPTSP Mahakam Ulu — the regency’s investment and one-stop licensing agency. Below: how a business licence is issued, what is being built here, and how to reach us.

Get a business licence Four steps through the national OSS system Sectors & conditions What is open, and what to plan for Ask us on WhatsApp Replies in Indonesian, during office hours

Rp 497 bn: Investment realised in 2025 Domestic and foreign, reported to the regional parliament, March 2026
300 MW: Hydropower under construction Batoq Kelo, Long Bagun — Rp13 trillion, broke ground May 2026
72.4%: of GRDP is land-based Agriculture, forestry and fisheries, 2025 — the economy to build on
70: Service types handled by this office

Figures are quoted from the sources linked above and were correct as at the date each source carries. They are not updated automatically.

Business licensing

How to get a business licence

Business licences in Indonesia are issued online through OSS, the central government’s single submission system. This office does not issue them itself — it helps you through the process and handles the permits that sit outside OSS.

Prepare your documents

A national ID (KTP/NIK) for Indonesian citizens or a passport for foreign nationals, a working email address, and a mobile number. Companies also need their deed of establishment and tax number (NPWP).
Register on OSS

Create an account at oss.go.id — the central government’s Online Single Submission system — and select the business classification (KBLI) that matches your activity.
Enter your business details

The system assigns your risk level and lists the requirements that follow from it. Risk is determined by the KBLI you chose, not by this office.
Receive your licence

Low-risk businesses receive a business identification number (NIB) immediately. Medium- and high-risk businesses complete the listed requirements first.

Stuck on the OSS form? Come to our assisted counter during office hours and staff will work through it with you, at no charge. Permits that are not business licences — advertising, research and others — are handled directly at the counter.

Open OSS Contact the office

Beware of fraud. The only official OSS address is oss.go.id. Issuing a business identification number through OSS is free of charge — do not deal with anyone asking for payment on behalf of the OSS system.

Investment

Sectors open to investment

Forestry

Forestry and environmental services

Most of Mahakam Ulu is designated forest estate. Its spatial plan allocates production forest across all five districts, and the land-based economy — agriculture, forestry and fisheries together — carries almost three quarters of the regency’s output. The openings are in non-timber forest products, social forestry and payments for environmental services: the regency already receives carbon finance under the World Bank FCPF programme, at the highest value per village in the province. Note that permits to use forest areas are issued by central government, not by this office, and most villages sit inside or on the edge of the forest estate, so consent from customary communities is a practical requirement rather than a formality.

Production forest allocated: ±845,276 ha (RTRW 2021–2041)
Protection forest allocated: ±706,523 ha (RTRW 2021–2041)
Deforestation 2024: 441 ha — among the lowest in East Kalimantan
FCPF carbon payment: Rp 17.38 bn across 46 villages (2023 performance year)

Source: Perda Mahakam Ulu 1/2021 (RTRW) and Dinas Kehutanan Kaltim

Plantation

Cocoa and rubber — yield and processing

Cocoa is the regency’s largest smallholder plantation crop, spread fairly evenly across all five districts, with rubber second. The 2023 agricultural census counted over 300,000 cocoa trees, but more than two fifths were not yet productive, so yields sit well below potential. The clearest opening is not more land but replanting, agronomic support, and post-harvest fermentation and processing — the spatial plan even earmarks a cocoa agrotourism area. Budget for high river freight and for the absence of a grid connection at any processing site.

Cocoa area: 2,356 ha (2025)
Rubber area: 1,804 ha (2025)
Cocoa trees: 304,205 — of which 129,861 not yet bearing (2023)
Households growing cocoa: 806 (2023)

Source: BPS Mahakam Ulu Dalam Angka 2026 and Sensus Pertanian 2023

Energy

Energy — the Batoq Kelo hydropower plant

A 300 MW hydroelectric plant at Batoq Kelo in Long Bagun district broke ground in May 2026 as a National Strategic Project, on a five-year schedule. It brings with it a 122 km access road and a 120 m bridge opening the route between East and North Kalimantan. The starting point is stark: the regency is served by four isolated diesel plants with no high-voltage network, and a substation at Ujoh Bilang is targeted for 2030. For investors that means real openings in construction supply, logistics and downstream power — and it means reliable grid power cannot be assumed to exist today.

Plant capacity: 300 MW, Rp13 trillion investment
Existing generation: 4 diesel plants, largest 2.3 MW at Ujoh Bilang
Electricity in GRDP: 0.04% (2025)
Villages with no electricity at all: 18 of 50 (2025)

Source: Pemprov Kaltim and BPS Podes Mahakam Ulu 2025

Tourism

Ecotourism and Dayak cultural tourism

The regency has a full legal framework in place: a 2024 by-law sets a tourism masterplan to 2038, dividing the territory into six destinations and thirteen strategic tourism areas. The draw is river, rapids and waterfall ecotourism in the upper Mahakam, combined with Bahau, Kenyah, Aoheng and Penihing Dayak culture — the Hudoq Pakayang mask festival at Long Pahangai each October is described in the plan’s own background paper as the largest hudoq event in East Kalimantan. Commercially the sector is barely started, which is precisely the opening: village-based lodging, river guiding and cultural itineraries. Most named sites are still at feasibility-study stage, not operating attractions.

Visitors in 2025: 11,825 — of whom 136 from abroad
Places to stay: 33 businesses across all five districts (2025)
Registered tourism villages: 16 listings, all at pioneer stage
Hudoq Pekayang: Each October, rotating among Long Pahangai villages

Source: Perda 8/2024, BPS Dalam Angka 2026 and Dinas Pariwisata Kaltim

Manufacturing

Processing industry — the structural gap

Manufacturing barely exists here, contributing under half a per cent of output against an East Kalimantan average above seventeen per cent. Primary material leaves the regency raw: cocoa, rubber, palm oil and forest products. The spatial plan already sets aside an industrial area in Long Bagun and Laham. This gap is the largest single opening on this page — its timing depends on power arriving from Batoq Kelo and on the road link being finished.

Manufacturing share of GRDP: 0.47% (2025) vs 17.8% for East Kalimantan
Industrial area allocated: ±664 ha in Long Bagun and Laham
Palm oil permit area held by 10 companies: 106,153 ha (permit area, not planted)

Source: BPS Mahakam Ulu Dalam Angka 2026 and Perda 1/2021 (RTRW)

Trade and logistics

Border trade and logistics

The law that created Mahakam Ulu in 2013 describes it explicitly as a gateway to Sarawak, Malaysia, and the spatial plan designates a border trade and services area at Long Apari and a border logistics area at Long Pahangai. Today the reality is far from that: goods move by river, and a single boat from Long Lunuk to Long Apari costs millions of rupiah plus fuel. Central government is building the parallel border road and the regency is preparing Ujoh Bilang airport for operation. There is real room in freight, warehousing and cross-border trade — provided you plan around the dry season, when the Mahakam falls and the river route closes.

Boat freight, Long Lunuk to Long Apari: Rp 5.55 million + 65 L fuel (Aug 2026)
Border road allocated to East Kalimantan: 244 km of 1,920 km Kalimantan-wide
Ujoh Bilang airport runway: 750 × 23 m, built; registration in progress

Source: UU 2/2013, Perda 1/2021 (RTRW) and Kementerian PUPR

Practical information

Access, logistics and conditions

Getting there

Mahakam Ulu is East Kalimantan’s youngest and most remote regency, formed in 2013 from Kutai Barat. Its seat is Ujoh Bilang in Long Bagun district, and it has five districts in all: Long Bagun, Long Hubung, Laham, Long Apari and Long Pahangai. Until recently the journey from Samarinda took 13 to 16 hours by road and river.

Source: Antara Kaltim, Januari 2026

Access is changing quickly

Two projects are reshaping logistics here. An airport at Ujoh Bilang — a 750 by 23 metre runway with terminal, administration and fire buildings — stood at 89 per cent completion in January 2026. A 140 km road from Tering to Long Bagun is targeted for 2027 and is expected to lower freight costs and steady commodity prices.

Source: Antara Kaltim & Pemkab Mahakam Ulu, 2025–2026

Power is arriving with the Batoq Kelo plant

Construction of a 300 MW hydroelectric plant at Batoq Kelo village, Long Bagun, began in May 2026 under a five-year schedule. Local government has asked the developer to hire locally, and the project includes a 122 km road connecting Mahakam Ulu to Malinau in North Kalimantan.

Source: Antara Kaltim, Juni 2026

Roads, power and signal — the honest picture

Of 582 km of regency road recorded in 2025, 420 km — about 72 per cent — was classed in severe disrepair, and 433 km of the network is earth surface. There is no state or provincial road in the regency at all. Thirty-five of fifty villages have households connected to the national grid and eighteen still contain households with no electricity. Of 51 telecommunications towers, 33 come from the government’s remote-area programme rather than commercial rollout, and the operator reported roughly a third of the territory still weakly served in 2026.

Source: BPS Mahakam Ulu Dalam Angka 2026 dan Podes 2025

The dry season closes the river

This is the constraint most easily missed from a desk. In August 2026 the Mahakam fell far enough that cargo vessels could reach only Long Iram in the neighbouring regency; Long Bagun, Ujoh Bilang, Long Pahangai and Long Apari were cut off, staples were rerouted overland at about Rp 1.5 million per pick-up, and a sack of rice reached Rp 1 million upriver. A referral hospital at Long Pahangai rationed its generator to three hours of shutdown a day because the fuel boat could not get through. Any operation here needs stock buffers sized for that window.

Source: Kompas dan Antara, Agustus 2026

Contact

Reach the office

Staff correspond in Indonesian. Written enquiries in English are welcome — please allow longer for a reply.

Address: Komplek Perkantoran Semi Permanen, Jl. Poros Kampung Ujoh Bilang - Long Melaham Kecamatan Long Bagun Kabupaten Mahakam Ulu
Email: dpmptsp@mahakamulukab.go.id
Phone / WhatsApp: 0823-9519-5200
Office hours: Monday–Thursday 08.00 - 15.30 WITA · Friday 08.00 - 11.00 WITA WITA (UTC+8)

Official documents

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