VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Negotiation on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) between Indonesia and Turkey has run since 3 years ago, but until now there is no significant development in the discussing process. It was stated by Indonesian ambassador to Turkey, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, in a special interview with Voice of Indonesia on Thursday (09/01) in Jakarta. According to Ambassador Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the CEPA between Indonesia and Turkey is expected to be completed this year because Indonesia competes with a number of countries in economic relations with Turkey.

“We are competing with some other countries and those competitors have finished have finalized their CEPA their FTA with Turkey 2-3 years ago. To name a few like Malaysia for example they have finalize their FTA with Turkey in 2015. And the immediate impact to us is the shifting of market segment. For example in palm oil. We used to have 80 percent of the market segment in Turkey and Malaysia had only 20 percent market segment. And now after FTA has been signed by the 2 countries now we have only 20 percent and Malaysia have more than 80 percent. So if we can finalized by this year or next year at least we can have 50-50 percent. It means 50 percent means a potential of around 300 million USD,” said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal.

Ambassador Lalu Muhammad Iqbal mentioned that Indonesia and Turkey still have potential to increase the economic cooperation between the two countries. One of them is creative industry sector. According to the ambassador, this sector can give added value for trade cooperation of the two countries and open new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. (VOI/ANDY/trans-yati/AHM)