VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia's Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has been invited by China to the 2023 China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in Nanning City, Guangxi Province, which is scheduled to be held on September 16–19.

Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun delivered the information at the Vice Presidential Palace here on Wednesday.

"We conveyed the (information) to Mr. Vice President, as he was invited by the Chinese government to attend the China-ASEAN Expo, which will take place in Nanning city," Oratmangun said after meeting Amin.

The 20th CAEXPO exhibition is the largest exhibition in China, he added.

According to him, CAEXPO 2023 is an exhibition for ASEAN countries, and Indonesia, as the ASEAN chair this year, is eligible to participate in it.

During the meeting with the Vice President, Ambassador Oratmangun also reported on bilateral relations between Indonesia and China, which marked 10 years of comprehensive strategic partnership in 2023.

"Comprehensive strategic partnership must be seen in numbers so that we can see it (the impact) more clearly," he said.

He pointed out that China is Indonesia's largest trading partner. Based on data from China Customs, the value of trade between Indonesia and China reached US$149.2 billion in 2022, the largest worldwide.

"According to data from China, that is the biggest (figure) worldwide and a surplus for us," he said.

He pointed out that in 2018, trade between the countries was just around US$72 billion.

He further said that the realization of China's investment in Indonesia reached US$8.2 billion in 2022, while Hong Kong's investment was recorded at US$5.6 billion.

Moreover, the two countries established sociocultural cooperation in the form of student exchanges.

There were 15,700 Indonesian students in China before COVID-19, and their current number is in the range of four thousand–five thousand.

In addition, he said, China's Belt and Road Initiative supports Indonesia's global maritime axis vision.  (Antaranews)