Jakarta, Sept 19 (Antara) - Indonesia is intensifying its efforts to promote its exports to China in an effort to balance its trade deficit with Beijing, which last year reached US$13 billion.
The efforts include promoting products to Chinese provinces, inviting Chinese businesspeople to its trade expo and establishing production design centers to improve its export products.
"We have to think of what products we have to export to equalize our trade balance," Indonesian Trade Minister Thomas T Lembong said after inaugurating the Indonesian Pavilion at the Twelfth China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in Nanning, China on Friday.
He noted that Indonesia¿s export products to China should have added values and a high competitive edge so that Indonesia would be able to balance its export volumes with its imports from China.
Indonesia will establish a Jakarta Regional Design Center (JRDC) early next month in order to improve the quality of its products and increase its competitive edge in the export market, particularly in China.
"We will establish the Jakarta Regional Design Centre early in October this year," said Nus Nuzulia Ishak, the director general of national export development of the Ministry of Trade, when answering questions raised by journalists in China on Saturday.
She said that the design will have an impact on the competitiveness of products. Ishak gave an example of silk products which were imported from China at a price of Rp50,000 per piece. In fact, its price could increase to Rp1 million if its design is specifically made in Indonesia.
Therefore, the opening of the design center is one of the strategies to provide added values for national products, particularly products designed for export to China.
Thus, with intensive promotions and improving the quality of products, Indonesia hopes to increase its exports to China and equalize its trade balance.
In the January to June 2015 period, the total trade volume for the two countries was recorded at US$22.3 billion, down 8.96 percent from the same period one year earlier.
Further, the trade balance between the two countries in 2014 recorded a deficit of US$13 billion in favor of China. The deficit increased by 79.1 percent compared with that in 2013, which was US$7.24 billion.
In its efforts to equalize Indonesia¿s trade balance with China, the ministry of trade is continuing to promote Indonesia¿s national products in all provinces throughout China, among others, by the establishment of trading houses in Shanghai and Nanning.
The other effort being made by Indonesia is in reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers for Indonesian products, particularly coal, chemicals, crude palm oil and its byproducts, including timber, paper, textile and textile products.
Indonesia has also sought to increase the number of Chinese buyer missions to Indonesia, as well as to adopt industrial and sanitation standards for Indonesian products sent to Chinese export markets through mutual recognition agreements (MRA).
Besides that, the Indonesian trade ministry is also inviting Chinese businesspeople to attend Indonesia¿s largest exposition in Jakarta.
The Trade Expo Indonesia 2015 will be held on October 21-25, 2015. "Please allow me to invite Chinese businesspeople to attend Indonesia¿s largest business-to-business (b-to-b) trade show ," Nus Nuzulia Ishak, said in Nanning, Guangxi, on Saturday.
"We will provide free accommodation, discounted tickets from the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and pick-up (at the airport)," she said.
The director general also made the same offer when opening Indonesia¿s product distribution center in Nanning on Friday, and during her address at the Indonesian trade and investment seminar at the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) 2015 on Saturday.
Ishak said the increase in Chinese investment and trade to Indonesia had positively contributed to Indonesia. The average growth of Indonesia-China trade reached 6.7 percent in the 2010-2014 period.
China is Indonesia¿s largest trade partner, with a total trade value of US$48 billion which accounts for more than one-quarter of Indonesia¿s total international trade volumes.
"In the midst of weakening global and national economic growth, as we see now, encouraging exports is still believed to be one of the strategies to promote the nation¿s economic growth," Ishak said.
Further, she hoped that the devaluation of the Chinese currency, the yuan, can be used by Indonesian businesses to encourage exports, especially for products with high local content, such as agricultural products, fisheries and plantations.
In the meantime, to boost trade between the countries, Indonesia and China would continue to push for direct transactions between the national currencies of the two nations.
"Trade and economic cooperation between the two countries will expand. Therefore, it is better for us to have direct transactions in rupiah and yuan (Renmimbi/RMB)," Minister for State Enterprises Rini Sumarmo told Antara in Beijing on Wednesday night.
Sumarno was in Beijing to attend the signing of a loan agreement between with China Development Bank (CDB) and three state lenders - Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).
Increases in demand for dollars would put pressure on the rupiah and yuan if the two countries continue to use the US currency in bilateral transactions, she said.
The minister said direct transactions using rupiah and yuan would protect both currencies from the negative impact of any change in demand for US dollars.
Bank Mandiri, BNI and BRI received a total loan of US$3 billion from China Development Bank to finance infrastructure projects in Indonesia.
"Around 30 percent of the loan would be in Renminbi (RMB). This is the first phase. In the second phase, the two countries agree to direct transactions using the rupiah and RMB," she said.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin of Bank Mandiri said his bank already proposed the use of RMBs in banking transactions with its branch in Shanghai.
"Hopefully, by the end of this year we could start using RMB, as we no longer have to use dollars, especially in banking deals in China," he said.***3***
(A014/INE/a014)
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 19-09-2015 18:26:26 |
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