AMPONTOONS.COM reporter, Nitis Hawaroh
AMPONTOONS.COM, JAKARTA – The Minister of National Development Planning of the Republic of Indonesia, Suharso Monoarfa, pushed the value of economic cooperation with the European Union (EU) to reach 30 billion US dollars (US).
According to him, the cooperation through the ARISE+ Indonesia – Trade Support Facility program plays an important role in strengthening the trade performance of Indonesia.
Furthermore, the value of Indonesia’s exports to European Union (EU) countries was recorded at approximately US$21.5 billion, while the value of EU imports to Indonesia reached US$11.6 billion USA.
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This was communicated by the minister of Bappenas, Suharso Monoarfa, during the dissemination of the results of ARISE+ Indonesia in Jakarta on Wednesday (17/5/2023).
“So, in the future we want to push this, so that it meets their international standards. Hopefully it can be even higher than $21.5 billion. If exports reach $30 billion, that would be good,” said Suharso Monoarfa to reporters, Wednesday .
Suharto said the role of this cooperation was to improve the quality of Indonesian products to meet international standards.
Additionally, he said, Indonesia itself is known for having the best cocoa butter and cocoa tree products in the world.
“We want to improve the quality of our products, also so that they understand the international standards of their products,” he said.
ARISE Indonesia – Trade Support Facility itself is one of the flagship initiatives within the EU-Indonesia cooperation framework.
This technical assistance program aims to support the Government of Indonesia in improving trade performance and competitiveness to promote sustainable and inclusive economic development.
“We are pleased to say that the economic cooperation with the European Union through ARISE Indonesia has played an important role in strengthening our performance and trade competitiveness, which is an important source of sustainable growth in our efforts to achieve the Vision 2045 of the ‘Indonesia,’ Suharso said.
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In the meantime, added the ambassador of the European Union, Vincent Pet, this cooperation should be able to open other collaborations between the European Union and Indonesia.
“We are delighted to have received outstanding cooperation from the government during the implementation of the ARISE Indonesia programme. The outstanding results we have achieved have motivated us to pursue deeper cooperation,” he said.
It is known that ARISE Indonesia has been implemented through two complementary technical assistance projects for five years, with a total budget of 15 million Euros. The first technical assistance (FY 1) will be completed by the end of May 2023.
During the four and a half years of implementation, ARISE+ Indonesia FY 1 has supported government institutions in enhancing skills in macroeconomic analysis and trade and investment policy planning, especially in Economic Partnership Negotiations (CEPA) with the EU .
Then, develop and adopt technical standards and regulations aligned with international standards to increase Indonesia’s export competitiveness and enable small geographical indication producers to produce and promote their products in the export market.
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