JAKARTA (July 4): Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday he aims to persuade companies that have significant operations in the country but are listed on overseas stock markets to sell shares on Indonesia' s bourse.

Widodo claimed he has a list of such firms, mostly operating in mining and plantation sectors, and said he would invite them " one by one" to persuade them, without force, to become a public company in Indonesia.

" Don' t let other countries be the one profiting. Why would you plant here but be listed in Singapore, Hong Kong or New York?" he told a room full of traders and company executives while touring the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in Jakarta.

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The president did not name any companies or business groups.

Singapore-based Wilmar International Ltd (WLIL.SI), a palm oil giant with plantations in Indonesian island of Kalimantan and Sumatra, is among the biggest companies listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Tito Sulistio, chief executive of the IDX, has previously urged PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of US-listed Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX.N) to list in on the local exchange.

Although Indonesia is Southeast Asia' s biggest economy, its stock market is relatively shallow compared to its peers. The market capitalisation of the Indonesian exchange is about 6,459 trillion rupiah ($666.4 billion).