Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani are scheduled to leave for Dubai on Tuesday to forge cooperation in several areas aimed at curtailing the country's oil and gas imports.

"Today, I will accompany Mrs. Finance Minister to Dubai to forge cooperation between the two governments as part of the efforts to curb oil and gas imports," Thohir stated following a joint meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs in Jakarta on Tuesday.

However, he desisted from divulging the agenda of the visit to Dubai, including the areas of cooperation. He only noted that the cooperation is related to oil and gas imports.

Curbing the trade deficit is one of the areas of focus of President Joko Widodo's agenda during his second term of office.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia's oil and gas imports in 2018 had reached 50.4 million tons, while its diesel oil imports had touched 4.6 million tons, thereby indicating that diesel oil represented nine percent of the country's oil and gas imports.

Oil and gas imports were valued at US$29.81 billion, constituting 18 percent of the total non-oil/non-gas imports that had reached $158 billion.

Meanwhile, diesel oil imports represented 1.6 percent of the total non-oil/non-gas imports. (ANTARA)