VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam hosted a regular brainstorming forum among Indonesian heads of representatives in the Southeast Asia region online on Friday (25/2). The event was entitled "Development of High Added-Value Manufacturing Industry and Increase of foreign Investment to Indonesia".

The forum was opened by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Mahendra Siregar with a keynote speaker by Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board, Bahlil Lahadalia. In addition, other speakers were President Director of Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC), and VP and COO of Hyundai Motor Asia Pacific.

Some Indonesian Ambassadors, Indonesian Consul Generals, Indonesian Consuls in Southeast Asia and the forum participants actively interacted with the speakers. They discussed policies and strategies in realizing efforts to develop ecosystems and the production of the electric battery industry, which will support Indonesia as a production base leading electric vehicles.

This brainstorming forum concluded that it is time for Indonesia to fully focus on mastering technology through strengthening research and development by combining national strengths and international partners. This is expected to be able to realize the ideals, transforming Indonesia's natural wealth into high added-value products and strong competitiveness.

The Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises –SOEs supports the digital economy by building infrastructure and opening funding access. That was stated by Deputy Minister of the State-owned Enterprises, I Pahala Mansury during the Forum Ekonomi Merdeka virtually on Monday (28/2).

Pahala Mansury said that Indonesia has a great potential in the digital economy sector. In 2025, Indonesian digital economic value will be projected to reach US$124 billion. With this amount, the digital economy contributes more than 10 percent to Indonesian Gross Domestic Product –GDP or 0.7 percent to global digital economy by 2025. Therefore, Pahala also remarked that Indonesia must use the potential optimally to be a main player and not just being a market for other countries.

Pahala further explained that to support the digital economy development, SOEs has 3 strategies. The first one is by building digital infrastructure from data center, cloud, to the 5G fiber optic network. Pahala also said that the business in the digital infrastructure has a great potential with market capitalization up to Rp400 trillion. The second one is by building a digital platform offering products or services needed or known in the world, such as game, healthtech, and edutech.

The third strategy is by establishing the Merah-Putih Fund to finance the potential startups. This becomes an alternative for the startups in reducing foreign capital. Pahala further stated that the Merah-Putih Fund would focus on funding the local startups so that the "soonicorn" or soon-to-be unicorn will still operate in Indonesia. In addition, this will help the local unicorns to join the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

The Merah- Putih Fund is targeted to be launched in Q2 2022. This fund would be managed by five corporations of SOEs in venture capital, namely Mandiri Capital Indonesia, MDI Ventures, Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi, BRI Ventures, and BNI Ventures.

Various typical weaving accessories of Maumere, Flores became one of the Indonesian products sold at the Indonesia Sunday Market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Sunday (27/2). The accessories, such as earrings, bracelets, bags, and woven patterned cloths of East Nusa Tenggara attracted the visitors at the Indonesian Sunday Market. They could enjoy various Indonesian culinary delights, including goat satay, Padang rice, gado-gado, geprek chicken and traditional snacks, such as lupis cakes, layer cakes, stuffed tofu and other culinary.   No wonder, the activities were also welcomed by not only Indonesian citizens, but also Vietnamese people and other foreigners.

On this occasion, the Consulate General of the Indonesian Republic (KJRI)  in Ho Chi Minh City distributed prizes to some visitors who took part in spreading the Indonesian Sunday Market through social media. Moreover, the Consulate General also conveyed information about the Indonesian Presidency at the G20 through video clips briefly and distributed the Xin Chao-Apa Kabar newsletter which is a monthly business communication media for the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Furthermore, Dharma Wanita Persatuan at the Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City also presented entertainment, such as contemporary Indonesian dances. Dozens of visitors who attended the event seemed enthusiastic to watch and even followed the dance movements presented with the concept of "flashmob."  Indonesian Sunday Market is an event to promote lots of products and Indonesian culture initiated by the Indonesian diaspora community in Ho Chi Minh City. This activity is also planned to be carried out regularly by applying the development of the pandemic situation and adherence to health protocols.

Indonesia and Switzerland discussed various issues ranging from solutions to global supply chain problems to palm oil on February 24, 2022. This was stated in the 9th Session of the Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETC) of the two countries. The Meeting is a routine bilateral consultation mechanism in the economic and trade fields between Indonesia and Switzerland which has been taking place since 2010.

Head of Bilateral Economic Relations for Asia and Oceania at the Swiss Ministry of Economy, Fabienne Wassermann, said that Swiss shipping companies are ready to provide assistance to overcome global supply chain and logistics problems in Indonesia, by opening direct shipping lines from Indonesia to export destination countries.

As quoted from the kemlu.go.id page (25/2) regarding palm oil, the Director General of America and Europe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Ambassador Ngurah Swajaya, who led the Indonesian Delegation, hoped that the Swiss Government would soon receive  the  certification  of the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil – ISPO  which is s one of the four certifications that have been recognized in the palm oil Ordinance in Switzerland. According to him, to make this happen, Switzerland is committed to helping increase the capacity of Indonesian small-scale farmers, through the 2021-2024 development cooperation scheme.

In addition, Ngurah Swajaya welcomed the planned visit of the Swiss Minister of Economy, Education and Research, Guy Parmelin along with a business delegation to Indonesia in March 2022. Ngurah Swajaya said he would convey concrete cooperation which is expected to be achieved during the visit of the Minister and the Swiss delegation to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, considering that Switzerland is one of the leading countries in the healthcare sector, the Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland in Bern, Muliaman Hadad, also invited Swiss pharmaceutical and medical device industry players to develop their portfolio in Indonesia.

Besides being attended by delegates from both governments, the 9th Session of the Joint Commission on Economic and Trade between Indonesia and Switzerland was also attended by Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shinta Kamdani, and several businessmen. In the dialogue session between business actors, Indonesia offered an opportunity to increase exports of cocoa products to meet the needs of the global Swiss chocolate industry. Meanwhile, a consortium of Swiss companies has shown interest in a number of infrastructure projects in Indonesia, including to develop the new National Capital.

The economic performance of Indonesia and Switzerland continues to show improvement even in the midst of the pandemic. Swiss investment in Indonesia in 2021 will quadruple to US$576.3 million, from previously US$130.9 million in 2020. This figure has even exceeded the investment value in the pre-pandemic period. In the last three years (2019-2021), Indonesia continued to record a surplus in the trade balance with Switzerland