VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia stressed the importance of upholding the principles of equality and fairness in free trade to the European Union (EU) during the ASEAN-EU Economic Ministers' Consultative Meeting, Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga stated.

The consultative meeting was held in Semarang, Central Java, on Sunday, as part of the series of activities of the 55th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting (AEM) being held on August 17-22 under Indonesia's chairmanship in the ASEAN this year.

"We stated the importance of ensuring balance and upholding objective principles to incorporate the values of fairness and equality into policies," Sambuaga remarked when met while attending the 55th AEM in Semarang on Sunday.

Indonesia's statement was made amid the recent dynamics in its relations with the EU following the latter's resolve to issue the European Union Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

The deputy minister affirmed that related parties should take into account objective principles during the policy formulation process in the hopes of creating a fair trade climate for all.

"A policy should apply to all parties. A policy is not supposed to be beneficial only to certain parties," he pointed out.

He stated that Indonesia is aspiring to forge and foster strategic and reciprocal trade cooperation with all parties, including the EU.

"We will continue to strive to encourage all parties to uphold objective principles that can bring about equality and fairness," he noted.

The ASEAN-EU Economic Ministers' Consultative Meeting was attended by 10 economic ministers of ASEAN, delegates of Timor-Leste as observers, ASEAN-Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn, and representatives of the European Commissioner for Trade.

The meeting was preceded by a meeting between economic ministers and the EU-ASEAN Business Council.

Indonesia has repeatedly expressed its objections to the implementation of the EUDR, as it requires exporting countries, including in ASEAN, to ensure that their products are free from deforestation-related processes before exporting them to countries within the union.

The regulation places special focus on the supervision of the production process of several products, such as livestock, cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy beans, and timber.

Indonesia views the regulation as a threat to seven of its export commodities: animal husbandry, coffee, palm oil, cocoa beans, soy beans, timber, and rubber. The Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs has projected that the EUDR could harm 15-17 million agricultural actors in Indonesia. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan urged the United Kingdom (UK) to not implement policies that could hinder Indonesia's exports like the European Union does with its deforestation-free regulation (EUDR).

"We discussed the UK's environmental policies while bearing in mind the EUDR. Hopefully, the UK will not implement policies that could harm our agricultural products," Hasan remarked after holding a bilateral meeting with British Minister of State for International Trade Nigel Huddleston on Sunday.

Both ministers held the meeting on the sidelines of the 55th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting hosted by Indonesia as the 2023 ASEAN chair in Semarang, Central Java, on Sunday.

In addition to environmental policies, Hasan revealed that he and Minister Huddleston made the most of their meeting to discuss about the upgrade of the two countries' Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

"We encouraged the optimization of JETCO by upgrading it into a CEPA to explore comprehensive partnership negotiations," he remarked.

According to Hasan, the British minister echoed his country's support for the Indonesian government's efforts to develop the digital economy that included the digitalization movement for micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga noted that during his visit to London earlier in July, the Indonesian government had made the request to the UK, appealing to it to not implement restrictive policies.

He affirmed that Indonesia had sent a clear and firm message regarding the importance of formulating and implementing balanced, egalitarian, and fair policies.

During his visit, he directly told Minister Huddleston that Jakarta is not in favor of restrictive policies like those devised by the European Union.

"In London, I blatantly said that the EU (European Union) should not have implemented policies that are discriminative in nature," he pointed out.

Minister Huddleston warmly welcomed Indonesia's request, he stated.

Sambuaga then expressed optimism that Huddleston's response was an indication that both countries share a similar outlook on the values of equality and balance.

The total value of the trade between Indonesia and the UK was recorded at US$1.42 billion during the January-June 2023 period, with Indonesia's exports to the UK reaching US$837.4 million and imports recorded at US$590.5 million.

Hence, Indonesia enjoyed a trade surplus of US$246.8 million with the UK during the period. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi, at India's Digital Economy Ministers' Meeting (DEMM), stated that Indonesia's Government supports the efforts and commitment of G20 member countries to continue collaboration to realize global digital transformation.

As a member of the G20 Troika during India's presidency in 2023, Indonesia's concrete form is supporting the discussion on three priority issues of public digital infrastructure, a safe and resilient digital economy, and digital expertise for the future workforce in this year's Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG).

"Indonesia is grateful for India's leadership and looks forward to future collaborations among G20 members to create a digital future that is resilient, safe, and inclusive for all, where no one is left behind," Setiadi noted in a statement received in Jakarta, Monday.

Setiadi assessed that the efforts of the Indian Presidency in this year's G20 have encouraged endeavors to share knowledge in public digital infrastructure among member countries, which is considered to be important, as the digital economy can create new opportunities for growth and prosperity as well as new challenges.

In addition, Indonesia highlighted the importance of discussing security issues in the digital economy sector, so that safety and security factors can also be prioritized to support digital economy resilience.

"In future, further exchanges will be carried out on how we, as a global community, address various challenges and problems in new technologies," he affirmed.

Furthermore, related to the issue of developing digital skills, Indonesia is taking a position to support this discussion at the global level.

In this position, the Indonesian Government supports investments in training and education that play an important role in enabling society to make the most of the opportunities of today's digital transformation.

"This is done to equip the community to face challenges in the future due to the emergence of new technology," Setiadi remarked.

At the DEMM of the DEWG of India's G20 Presidency, Minister Budi Arie Setiadi was accompanied by Secretary General of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Mira Tayyiba and Head of the International Institutions Center of the ministry Ichwan Nasution.

The DEMM during India's G20 Presidency is a continuation of the DEWG meeting. The event was attended by G20 member countries, nine invited country representatives, and seven representatives of international organizations.

Each country expressed its views on three priority issues that were part of the final documents of the DEWG Meeting series: Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Digital Inclusion and Innovation; Building Safety, Security, Resilience, and Trust in the Digital Economy; and Digital Skilling for Building a Global Future-Ready Workforce. (antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan expected the EU-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC) to come up with solutions to address the challenges found in strengthening cooperation between the two regions.

"I hope that the EU-ABC can propose solutions to the challenges faced by ASEAN, especially in strengthening cooperation with the EU," Hasan said here on Sunday.

At the consultation meeting between the ASEAN economic ministers and the EU during the 55th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (AEM) in Semarang, Hasan explained that the ASEAN economic ministers and EU-ABC discussed various challenges to cooperation.

Those challenges include the impact of climate change on economic development and efficient supply chains.

In the meeting, they also discussed the results of the EU-ASEAN Business Sentiment Survey, especially related to digitalization to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

"The EU-ABC stated that ASEAN is currently the region with the biggest economic opportunities," Hasan confirmed.

The ASEAN economic ministers also met with the European Commission to discuss efforts to strengthen cooperation in digitalization, green technology, green services, and supply chain resilience.

Meanwhile, Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga explained that the consultation meeting between ASEAN economic ministers and the EU prioritized collaboration between the two regions.

"But the point is about sustainability and connectivity, as well as the joint collaboration with ASEAN and other common things," he said.

In addition, the AEM and EU's consultation meeting on Sunday also approved the ASEAN-EU Trade and Investment Work Program for 2024–2025, which includes EU financing assistance in the field of capacity building.

Earlier, EU Ambassador to ASEAN, Igor Driesmans, highlighted the solid relationship between the two regions in trade and investment, which has reached 200 billion euros per year.

Indonesia is chairing the 2023 ASEAN Chairmanship, raising three priority issues in the economic sector: recovery and rebuilding, the digital economy, and sustainability. (Antaranews)