Malaysia-Indonesia keen to boost trade ties, investments

The Dollar Business Bureau

Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that in the last decade, Malaysian firms have created a strong presence in Indonesia in major sectors such as banking, construction, plantation, energy, toll-road and telecommunications.

He said while referring to a roundtable business meeting, co-chaired by himself and Eko Putro Sandjojo, a Minister in the government in charge of facilitating Malaysian investments in Indonesia, where Malaysian firms expressed their keenness to continue to play a major role in the socio-economic growth of Indonesia.

The roundtable meeting was the first joint discussion between the two countries with maximum number of high-profile government and business delegates.

“The huge participation from Malaysian companies at the event indicated their keen interest to keep doing investments in Indonesia, which is strengthened by the confidence in the country’s economic growth trajectory and the reforms started by the administration of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, especially in eliminating red tape for investors,” Mustapa said.

“During my courtesy call on President Widodo, I relayed the interest of Malaysian companies to continue investing in Indonesia’s infrastructure development, he added.

Indonesia’s economy of $1 trillion with around 250 million people and the rising middle class population has lot of potential, which if fully utilised, will significantly contribute towards establishing a prosperous ASEAN region.

Mustapa further said that he expressed similar sentiments during his bilateral meeting with Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita. The two leaders agreed to reach a trade target of $30 billion and also to come up with specific proposals from each side to boost bilateral trade in potential ventures in new fields of collaboration like micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and digital economy.

He said the given proposals will further be discussed at the forthcoming 3rd Joint Investment & Trade Committee Meeting, scheduled to be held in Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia) on July 10-13, 2017.

“I believe we could look ahead to better trade numbers not only with Indonesia, but also other ASEAN countries if we are more serious in eradicating the non-tariff barriers and measures (NTBs and NTMs),” he said.

Indonesia is a key trading partner of Malaysia with an overall trade of $13.8 billion in 2016.

During the period of 2008-2016, Malaysia invested around $15 billion in Indonesia, while Indonesia’s investments into Malaysia was at around $2.6 billion.