VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Singapore joined hands with Malaysia and Indonesia in developing a strong regional supply chain basis to use the shift in global manufacturing flow.

Using the investment increase from India, China, and Southeast Asia in recent years, Singapore increased cooperation with its neighboring countries. It included building some manufacturing basis including Singapore, Johor in Malaysia, and Riau Islands in Indonesia, which geographically are neighboring to each others. Jacqueline Poh, the Managing Director at Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said that in the gathering of London Stock Exchange Group and Reuters Newsmaker on Thursday (14/9).

Poh stated that Singapore is increasing the effort in regional supply chain, so that - along with Malaysia and Indonesia - it can be a much stronger production basis in Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, during the G20 Summit in India last week, India, the US, the Gulf countries, and some European countries announced a new trade route. India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy, European Union, and the US signed a Letter of Intent for the founding of India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).

IMEC was aimed to increase trade relations and contact between Europe and India, in hope of improving the economic development of Europe, Asia, and the Gulf. In this, the Gulf will be a joint. The plan also includes cross border railway, that complements the existing sea lane and land connections. This corridor aims to improve and smoothen goods and services transport from, to, and through India, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe.

The plan execution will require a fantastic investment. In a press release, India - the chair of G20 2023 - refers to the World Bank involvement. For European Union, the IMEC plan is in line with its global strategy for investment in infrastructure projects.

On the other hand, European Union, the US, and Indonesia have launched the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment in the G20 Summit in Bali, November 2022. This was in line with European Union's Global Gateway program. For this program, European Union provided 300 billion Euros until 2027 to fund 90 projects across the globe.

For Indonesia, international supply chain is a crucial issue in the current globalization era. This is important in ensuring the smooth export and imports, while cutting  costs. Therefore, worker and operational costs will be lower mainly in producing goods.