VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita signed a Joint Ministerial Statement with Minister of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Tatyana D. Valovaya in Jakarta on last Thursday (2/14). This is the stage towards the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) later this year between Indonesia and five Eurasian countries, namely Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. Minister Enggartiasto Lukita after the signing as reported  by Antara News Agency said that economic cooperation with Eurasia cannot directly lead to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) scheme, because they have certain  procedure and standard so that the MoC becomes an agreed matter. He is optimistic that with the MoC, the value of trade between Indonesia and Eurasia, which currently reaches $2.79 billion dollars, will double in  less than five years. He hoped that the signing of the MoC and a business forum could be held in the second quarter of this year. After the signing of the MoC, information will be exchanged to get to know each other's products and markets more deeply in a meeting between businesspeople of both countries. According to Minister Enggartiasto, Eurasia has a large potential market for Indonesia. The Indonesian flagship products to Eurasia are Crude Palm Oil (CPO), coffee, rubber,  food products, and furniture. Meanwhile, products from Eurasia imported by Indonesia are aluminum, alloy, and fertilizer. Minister Enggartiasto Lukita explained, basically Indonesian and  Eurasia products complement each other. They have advance technology for several things. But, they also need some raw materials as basic needs. He also pointed out that crude palm oil (CPO) is a commodity that has great potential to be exported to Euroasia, especially Russia. Through the MoC, Indonesian domestic industries can directly  send their products to five Eurosian Economic Community -EEC countries through a single process. So, this really opens the door of Indonesia to increase trade transactions. Meanwhile, Minister of Integration and Macro-economics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, Tatyana D Valovaya said that Eurasia hoped that an increase in economic cooperation could be achieved this year. Valovaya also explained, this meeting was also a follow-up to the previous one which  took place in December 2017. She  said that so far, Euroasia had sent a number of products to Indonesia, such as food. In the future, she hopes to be able to fill products that have not been found in the Indonesian market, such as machinery and equipment.