Jakarta, Dec 12 (Antara) - Indonesia is actively promoting trade and investment in South Korea since both these sectors have shown a downward trend over the past few years.
The value of Indonesia-South Korea trade in 2014 for example was recorded at US$22.47 billion, down from some US$30 billion in 2012. Likewise, South Korean investment in 2012 was recorded at US$1.9 billion but up to the first half of 2015, it accounted for US$790 million only.
Trade Minister Thomas Lembong is committed to increasing the trade and investment values of both nations.
Therefore, he visited South Korea this week to continue negotiations on the Indonesia-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IKCEPA) in an effort to increase market access and attract more investment from South Korea.
"We will expand market access through the continuation of the IKCEPA negotiations and the promotions of Indonesian products in the South Korean market," Thomas Lembong said in a written statement received by Antara in Jakarta Wednesday.
During the visit, the minister planned to meet South Korean Deputy Minister for Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Kwan-sup, the chairman of Korea Development Bank (KDB) and representatives of a number of South Korean companies such as POSCO and Samsung Global Operations.
South Korea is the fourth biggest investor country in Indonesia with investment value of US$6.82 billion, Thomas said. South Korea's biggest investment in 2014 was in such sectors as basic metal, rubber industry and leather industry. Indonesia hopes South Korean investment will continue to increase in the future.
"We appreciate very much the commitment of South Korean businesses like POSCO, Hyosung, Lotte Chemical, BK Energy and Hanwa to increase investment in Indonesia, particularly in the fields of infrastructure, energy, steel industry and petrochemicals," the minister said.
After a meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Jakarta in October 2013, then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono revealed that South Korean investment in Indonesia had continued to increase and reached US$1.9 billion in 2012.
Yet, the figure of South Korean investment in the first half of this year (2015), which stood at US$790 million, showed a downward trend.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who attended a peace conference in Seoul last August, also promoted Indonesian businesses to attract more investment from South Korea.
South Korean investment projects in Indonesia employ 35,000 workers, with an investment value worth Rp2.01 trillion during the first half of 2015, according to Franky Sibarani, the chief of the Indonesian Capital Investment Board (BKPM) who accompanied Vice President Kalla in Seoul.
Of all the projects, there were about 158 South Korean investment projects in the textile and textile product (PTP) sector which employed 27,000 workers, with an investment value of Rp805.46 billion.
South Korean investment in the first half of 2015 also covered 54 projects in the footwear sector, with investments totaling Rp86.48 billion and employing 5,000 workers.
South Korea is one of the countries that has been the focus of the government's attention because of its significant potential, Franky Sibarani said. South Korea is among the five largest investor countries, with the ratio of its investment realization reaching 64.51 percent.
This means that most of South Korean investment plans are realized. However, the portion of South Korean investment in Indonesia was not as large as their investments in other countries.
Indonesia receives less South Korean investments than China, the United States, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Mexico, and that is why BKPM had been actively holding investment marketing activities in South Korea.
"There are still a lot of Korean investment potentials which could be drawn into Indonesia," Franky said.
In the trade sector, Indonesia's trade with South Korea in 2014 was recorded at US$22.47 billion. In the January - September 2015 period, however, the trade volume of both countries dropped to US$12.52 billion, down 25.92 percent from that in the same period in 2014 when it stood at US$16.90 billion.
The volume of Indonesia-South Korea trade showed a downward trend. Indonesia-South Korea bilateral trade was recorded at US$30 billion in 2012, according to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"Our (two-way) trade last year (2012) stood at US$30 billion. We have set a bilateral trade target of US$50 billion for 2015 and US$100 billion for 2020," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had told the press after a meeting with visiting South Korean President Park Geun-hye in October 2013.
South Korea is actually Indonesia's seventh biggest non-oil/non-gas export destination country, according to Trade Minister Thomas Lembong. Indonesia's non-oil exports to South Korea stood at US$5.72 billion in 2014, or about three percent of its total non-oil exports in the same year.
That value declined by 5.55 percent from that in 2013, when it stood at US$6.05 billion.
Indonesia's non-oil / non-gas exports to South Korea from January to September 2015, were recorded at US$4.23 billion, down 1.23 percent from the corresponding period a year earlier, when it was US$4.28 billion.
Over the past five years, Indonesia's non-oil / gas exports have dropped by 5.73 percent from US$6.87 billion in 2010 to US$5.71 billion in 2014.***3***
(A014/INE/O001)(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 12-12-2015 13:35:4 |
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