VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita and Minister Council for Economic Integration and Macroeconomic Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Sergey Glasyev held a bilateral meeting to discuss trade and investment in a bid to enhance Indonesia's economic cooperation with EEC member countries. The EEC member countries are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 34th Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) event at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) BSD City, Tangerang, Banten on Thursday (17/10). Before the bilateral meeting, Minister Sergey visited several booths at TEI 2019. The meeting was followed by the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) between Indonesia and the EEC, as a form of commitment by both parties to strengthen economic relations.

Minister Enggartiasto Lukita further stated that this meeting was an implementation of President Joko Widodo's vision of increasing exports by opening new markets for Indonesian products, and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is a non-traditional market.

Furthermore, Minister Enggartiasto emphasized that the Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) would be the basis for both parties to start technical cooperation in various fields in order to increase trade and investment, such as exchanging information and experience, joint studies and encouraging business interaction. The MOC cooperation sector covers 18 sectors, including trade in goods, services, investment, industry, agriculture, transportation, energy, business competition and intellectual property rights.

Minister Engggartiasto also affirmed that the signing is a new milestone for both parties. Minister Sergey has just been inaugurated and this visit is his first visit abroad. This shows the commitment of both parties in enhancing Indonesia's trade relations with EEC member countries. The EEC has previously signed a similar MOC with other ASEAN countries. At the bilateral meeting, the two Ministers also discussed cooperation in the context of the ASEAN-EEC Dialogue. Thus, Indonesia must utilize this collaboration to build momentum and boost Indonesia's competitiveness, particularly with the EEC. Indonesia and EEC will hold the first Joint Working Group meeting in the first half of 2020 to identify concrete collaboration that can be carried out by both parties.