“The green lane will make it easier and faster for Malaysian franchisors to set up their businesses in Indonesia. Currently, it takes up to two years to get everything approved by the Indonesian government.

“With this facility, strict conditions will be loosened to expedite application approval,” he said on Monday after paying a courtesy call to Dr Mari at her ministry here.

Ismail Sabri said the proposed green lane would be bilateral and both parties also agreed to extend it to other Asean countries as well.

“The same problem exists in Malaysia. It only takes up to seven days for foreign companies to get license approval to set up in Malaysia but dealing with the local authorities may take up to a year,” he said, adding that both his ministry and its Indonesian counterpart will study the obstacles and work out the details.

Ismail Sabri also said that among the other matters discussed with Dr Mari was the cross-nation exchange of officers between both ministries.

“She agreed to arrange for our officers to observe and learn from their Competition Commission. This is a good opportunity for us to gain experience from them as our own Competition Act will be enforced beginning next year while their Act has been in place since 2000.