VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

KBRN, Santiago: The Indonesian Ministry of Trade (MoT) is encouraging the penetration of Indonesian products to South America through Chile. It was conveyed by the Director General of National Export Development (PEN) of the Ministry of Trade Didi Sumedi as the leader of the Indonesian Trade Mission Delegation to Chile on 9-10 May 2024. "The Ministry of Trade is committed to continuing to encourage Indonesian products to enter non-traditional markets, one of which is the South American region. Chile has a strategic position among other South American countries because it can be an entry point for Indonesian products to the South American region," Didi said.

Didi also said that this trade mission aims to encourage increased trade potential and economic partnership between the two countries after the implementation of IC-CEPA in 2019. "Through the utilisation of the IC-CEPA trade agreement, the potential value of trade between the two countries can still be increased to USD 1 billion. The Trade Mission to Chile is also a form of the Ministry of Trade's contribution in supporting the National Export Enhancement Task Force, and Chile is one of the priority countries targeted to increase exports," Didi said.

Chile is a country with a very open economy. Chile has signed 34 free trade agreements (FTAs) with 64 countries including Indonesia. IC-CEPA alone eliminates 89.6 per cent of the total tariff posts. Therefore, Indonesian businesses can take advantage of it through the use of the Certificate of Origin (SKA) Form IC-CEPA. "IC-CEPA has had a positive impact on increasing the value of Indonesia-Chile trade by 21.73 per cent compared to the value of trade before IC-CEPA," said Djatmiko.

In this trade mission, there were nine business players and associations participating. The businesses and associations are engaged in various sectors such as palm oil products and their derivatives, pesticides, chemical products, vehicle parts, and packaging. Meanwhile, the Indonesia-Chile business forum attended by more than 70 Chilean business players, followed by one on one business matching between Indonesian companies and Chilean business players, has successfully recorded potential transactions worth USD 7.45 million or Rp 119.20 billion. Potential transactions were generated from palm oil products and their derivatives, motor vehicle parts, and plastic packaging. In addition, a business meeting was also held with the Chilean Confederation of Industries (Sociedad de Fomento Fabril/ SOFOFA) and representatives of the Chilean Government in the field of international economic relations (Subsecretatia de Relaciones Economicas Internationales Chile/SUBREI).

The meeting aimed to encourage the involvement of Indonesian and Chilean businesses, as well as broader cooperation and mutual benefit for both countries. In a series of trade missions to Chile, a number of business visits were made, namely to Jumbo Supermarket, an importer of Mannheim automotive parts, an importer of Area Design furniture, and an importer of Indonesian bicycles, Cross Mountain. Jumbo Supermarket, which is the largest retailer in South America, has imported noodle products from Indonesia with several variants and flavours. Jumbo Supermarket expressed interest in trying coconut products from Indonesia. In response, Didi welcomed and will facilitate Jumbo's meeting with Indonesian companies that produce coconut products.

In addition, during a visit to Chile's leading importer of vehicle parts, Mannheim, the Ministry of Trade facilitated a meeting between Indonesian vehicle parts businesses and Chilean importers. The Ministry of Trade also supports other potential automotive parts products to enter the Chilean market. Didi Sumedi, the leader of the Indonesian trade delegation, said that in addition to food and vehicle parts, the growth potential of the furniture industry in Chile is also very promising. During a visit to Area Design, a prestigious furniture supply company in Chile, Didi found that 70 per cent of its products come from Indonesia.

Didi believes that through the preferential tariff scheme of the IC-CEPA, which has entered the implementation stage, the performance of Indonesian furniture exports to Chile will continue to increase. "Moreover, because Indonesian furniture products can compete in the Chilean market in terms of price with similar products from other countries," Didi added.

Meanwhile, at a meeting with Cross Mountain, which is a well-known importer of sports products in Chile, Didi invited Cross Mountain, which has also imported mountain bikes from Polygon Indonesia, to take advantage of the IC-CEPA tariff reduction scheme to increase the volume and value of bicycle imports from Indonesia. "Bicycles are one of the products that receive preferential tariffs on import duty reductions under the IC-CEPA scheme," Didi concluded.

Source: Indonesian Ministry of Trade

VOInews, Jakarta: The Indonesian Embassy in Suva, Fiji, encourages Fijian civil society to understand and encourage the strengthening of cooperation between Indonesia and Fiji in various fields through the establishment of the Fiji-Indonesia Friendship Association (FIFA). This was conveyed by the Indonesian Ambassador to Fiji Dupito D Simamora to Voice of Indonesia, via Zoom connection on Wednesday (8/5/2024). Ambassador Simamora revealed the support of the Fijian people for the formation of FIFA which became a forum for grassroots diplomacy of the Indonesian and Fijian communities.

"Many tribal chiefs, many political figures, even some rectors from universities and big businessmen in Fiji have declared themselves joining this association. So we think this is an important capital, so that now in the future FIFA will become our partner in various efforts that we make at the government level. And of course, later we hope that FIFA can consolidate relations between the two countries, especially after we celebrate 17 June as the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations or diplomacy between Indonesia and Fiji," Ambassador Dupito Simamora said.

Ambassador Simamora further explained that FIFA is intended to build trust between Indonesia and Fiji as well as understanding between the people of the two countries so that they are not easily instigated by NGOs or parties that are less friendly to Indonesia. "We want to encourage Fijian civil society to be able to understand and also support the cooperation that is being built between the two nations. This is one of the important infrastructure buildings of diplomacy in supporting cooperation in various fields, including education, vocational training, agriculture and most importantly for us in addition to understanding, a relationship of mutual respect and trust must be built between the two countries which is also agreed upon or supported by civil society so that they are not easily influenced by some NGOs that may be less friendly to Indonesia," Ambassador Simamora explained.

As quoted from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry website (kemlu.go.id), Indonesia has established diplomatic relations with Fiji since 1974, and has an embassy in Suva City which was established in 2002. The Fiji-Indonesia Friendship Association was inaugurated by the President of Fiji, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere on 26 March 2024 in Suva.

VOInews, Jakarta: The Ministry of Agriculture will build a 10,000-hectare modern agriculture cluster. As a first step, the development will begin in Bandung Regency, West Java by involving many parties including universities to attract millennials. This commitment was conveyed by Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman during a working visit to Solokan Jeruk Village, Bandung Regency, Tuesday (7/5/2024). "We want to create a cluster in West Java of 5,000 to 10,000 hectares. So, everything will use high technology that is in line with modern countries," said Minister Amran Sulaiman.

Mr Amran said the modern farming cluster is a future breakthrough to attract young people who are currently entering the demographic bonus. Later, millennials or gen z will operate drones, remote controls and other planting robots that can speed up production.

"There will be no manual planting. Everything is planted using machines, harvested using machines. We are enhancing our efforts so far with the use of technology and mechanisation," he said.

In the future, the Minister hopes that this modern agriculture cluster will trigger the expansion of modern agriculture in other areas so that Indonesia can become a model for Southeast Asia and ASEAN as a whole. "I want our agriculture to be an example for Southeast Asia and Asia. So fertilising is no longer manual but using drones," he added.

Bandung Regent Dadang Supriatna fully supports Ministry of Agriculture's efforts to build modern agriculture in his area. Moreover, he said, agriculture has proven to be the main support for economic growth in the Bandung area. "During Covid-19, Bandung's economic growth rate was minus 1.87 per cent, but now it has increased to 4.93 per cent. After we study and explore that it turns out, the majority of the main support in the economic growth rate of Bandung Regency comes from agriculture," he said.

Therefore, Dadang wants his people, who are mostly farmers, to make good use of all the programmes run by the Ministry of Agriculture, including pompanisation and modern agricultural clusters. "Thank you for your help and support so that we Bandung Regency farmers are ready to take steps to make Bandung Regency the location of future modern agriculture,"  Bandung Regent concluded.

VOInews, Jakarta: Fiji shared many similarities with Indonesia. Quoting an interview with the Indonesian Ambassador to Fiji, Dupito D. Simamora on the Voice of Indonesia's Ranah Diplomasi programme on Wednesday (8/5/2024) there are at least three similarities between Indonesia and Fiji.

First, according to Ambassador Simamora, like Indonesia, Fiji is also an archipelago republic. "Fiji is an archipelago in the southern Pacific with about 300 islands but the area is about almost four times the island of Bali, so all the islands in Fiji are about four times the size of the island of Bali," Ambassador Simamora said. Ambassador Simamora added that Indonesia is actually also part of the Pacific archipelago which is glued together by the Melanesian race of some Indonesian tribes with Pacific countries. Indonesia is an associate member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group as well as a dialogue partner of the Pacific Island Forum along with Fiji.

Like Indonesia, according to Ambassador Simamora, Fiji is a country that lives with ethnic and religious diversity. "Maybe it can be said to be the only country that is multi-ethnic and multi-religious because here in addition to the Melanesian group which is the indigenous population of around 65 percent, there is also a fairly large portion of indo-fijians or Fijians of Indian descent who were brought here to work on plantations, especially sugar cane plantations and that is also one of the characteristics of Fiji is that besides being multi-ethnic it is also multi-religious, or multi-religious. The largest is Christianity followed by Hinduism and then Islam and of course other religions. So if in other Pacific countries it can almost be said to be homogeneous although there are always minorities but here is the only heterogeneous country which may also be a kind of mini Indonesia but in a different composition, "continued Ambassador Simamora.

The third similarity, according to Ambassador Simamora, is that the Fijian people are generally sports lovers. If Indonesians are generally happy with football and badminton, while Fijians like rugby. "So I think there are similarities with Indonesia. But the pride of Fijians is rugby, so it is not surprising that in 2020 this country also won a gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo," concluded the Ambassador who began serving since August 2023.