Jakarta, Nov 10 (Antara) - Indonesia still needs to improve in the economic field to face the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities posed by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will be implemented beginning next January.
"Some quarters still harbor doubts regarding the readiness of Indonesian businesses in the face of the ASEAN free market," Chief Economic Minister Darmin Nasution stated on Wednesday, last week (Nov. 4).
The minister remarked that in the economic field, Indonesia still has several notes on areas of improvement, which have to be prepared in the short term and long run. Therefore, preparations are very important in the face of the AEC. This is particularly crucial for major economic issues.
"The volume of intra-ASEAN trade has increased significantly, and Indonesia must face it with further preparations," noted the chief economic minister.
He affirmed that the AEC offered opportunities as the ASEAN region is a huge market, with a combined population of 600 million and a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.4 trillion in 2014. This is attractive to investors.
Therefore, the minister urged the central and regional governments to continue to coordinate and make preparations to work on their weaknesses in the economic field.
In less than two months, or on January 1, 2015, the ASEAN will enter a new era in terms of intra-ASEAN trade, which will be built on three pillars: politics, economy, and socio-culture.
The three pillars will transform the ASEAN into a stable, prosperous, and favorable region. After all, the ASEAN countries already have the foundation for their social and cultural interactions.
Therefore, the minister has encouraged officials, including governors, deputy governors, regional secretaries, businesses, and academicians across the country to make preparations in the face of the ASEAN free trade.
"The flow of foreign investment into the ASEAN in 2014 totaled US$136.2 billion, while its trade volume with countries outside the region was US$2.53 trillion," the coordinating minister revealed.
He expressed optimism that intra-ASEAN trade will increase with the enactment of the AEC. As a single market and production base, the economic competitiveness of ASEAN members is expected to be high and balanced.
Therefore, Indonesia needs to make preparations in various fields, such as infrastructure, investment, and legal frameworks.
Regarding infrastructure projects, the government has, among others, prepared a project list, particularly projects that will be financed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
"We are still preparing the projects," Adi Suryabrata, the deputy for development financing affairs of the National Development Planning Ministry, remarked on Monday (Nov. 9).
In the meantime, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoaro noted on a separate occasion that the government had sought financing for infrastructure projects in five sectors: seaports, electricity, airports, railways, and toll roads.
On the details of the projects and their locations, the government is still chalking out the list of external debt plans, or Blue Book 2015-2019, which contains 116 infrastructure projects worth US$39.9 billion.
Several international creditors, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and bilateral partners have selected various projects in the Blue Book 2015-2019.
According to Minister Bambang, the AIIB will also channel funding not only for government projects but also for infrastructure projects under the state-owned companies (BUMNs) and for projects under the Private-Government Partnership scheme.
"They (AIIB) are ready to finance or provide funds for our BUMNs and are ready to partner with the World Bank," the finance minister affirmed.
Besides on infrastructure, Indonesia has also made preparations in the investment sector. After all, investment in the third quarter of this year was recorded to have increased.
The increased realization of investment in three priority sectors in the third quarter of 2015 has helped prepare Indonesia even more to face the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the investment board chief has said.
The three sectors are export-oriented industry, import substitution industry and mineral resources downstream businesses.
"The increase in the realization of investment in the three sectors underlines the government's efforts to boost the competitiveness of our industry and our export-oriented efforts. This will support the readiness of Indonesia to face the AEC and other free trade agreements," Franky Sibarani, the head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said in a press statement released here on Saturday.
He said that based on the BKPM data, the value of investment in the export-oriented industry in the January-September 2015 period totaled Rp25.7 trillion, up 10.4 percent compared to the level achieved in the same period in the previous year.
Investment in the import substitution industry in the January-September 2015 period was recorded at Rp34.5 trillion, up 15.9 percent from that in the corresponding period a year earlier.
In the downstream industry of the mineral resource sector, investment was recorded at 33.2 trillion, showing an increase of 66.8 percent as compared to that in the corresponding period last year.
According to Franky, the implementation of the AEC was now staring us in the face and it is an issue that should be given attention.
"One thing that should be given attention to is that we should not allow ourselves to become a big market for products of other countries. We should be able to take advantage of the export opportunities which will become bigger and bigger when the market opens up," Franky said.
The other thing that Indonesia has to prepare is legal framework with other ASEAN countries.
Vice President Yusuf Kalla has stressed the importance of harmony and standardization of legal frameworks among ASEAN countries, in particular to face the enactment of the AEC.
"The AEC, with regards to the discretion of commodity and people services, will finally need this standardization in order to equate legality among ASEAN countries," Kalla said in Nusa Dua, Bali, last month.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly also declared how important it is to promote cooperation in the ASEAN legal framework in order to increase the investment related to some e-commerce issues.
"Through this meeting, an agreement on the legal framework to achieve AEC, which remains for two months, will be reached" Minister Yasonna said during a meeting with the ASEAN Minister of Justice (ALAWMM) in Bali, on October 22.
(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 10-11-2015 14:08 |
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