VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Ambassador to Russia and Belarus, Wahid Supriyadi, in Jakarta, Thursday (09/01) invites entrepreneurs in Indonesia to know more about market potential in Russia. In a special interview with Voice of Indonesia at Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Jakarta, the ambassador said one of the challenges in developing economic cooperation between Indonesia and Russia is lack of knowledge among Indonesian entrepreneurs on market potential in Russia. Ambassador Wahid said that Russian people have always welcome exhibitions on Indonesian potentials held by the Indonesian Embassy in Russia.

This must be followed up by continuously introducing the Indonesian potentials. AmbassadorWahid Supriyadi also invites entrepreneurs in Indonesia to invest in Russia due huge potential in Russia.

“The biggest problem for us is our ignorance. Not many people in Indonesia know the potential of Russia. Don’t forget, Russia is one of the five members of Euro-Asian Economic Union. A market of 180 million people. Look at the potential of Russia by investing in Russia. It’s like this is something also encouraged by President Joko Widodo what we call it ‘outbound investment’. And the potential is there,”  said Wahid Supriyadi.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo in his direction before some Indonesian ambassadors in Jakarta said that currently Indonesian foreign diplomacyis focusing on the economic diplomacy. According to the president, the ambassadors play their roles as investment envoys, for which they need to acknowledge investment opportunities which can be used to support economic development in Indonesia. (VOI/NDY/trans-yati/AHM)

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) urged Indonesian ambassadors and diplomats for foreign countries to direct their focus on economic diplomacy since it is viewed as being direly required by Indonesia. The head of state made the request at the opening ceremony of the work meeting of the chief delegation with the Foreign Affairs Ministry at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Thursday.

"We want all focus to be on economic diplomacy. Some 70 to 80 percent of what we have concerns that matter since that is what we need for now," Jokowi emphasized.

Hence, it is crucial that the ambassadors play their roles as investment envoys, for which they need to acknowledge investment opportunities as a future projection.

"The first one is the field related to commodities or products for import substitutions," Jokowi remarked.

For instance, Petrokimia’s fertilizer product, of which 85 percent is still imported. Hence, some opportunities still exist to boost investment in that field.

The president also reiterated the need to find investors for processing raw materials since to this end Indonesia has abundant resources.

To conduct economic diplomacy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has compiled several strategic steps including capitalizing on the strengthening of the Indonesian domestic market.

"Indonesia is a vast market with more than 260 million people. We need to take this as leverage in establishing mutually beneficial economic cooperation at the bilateral, regional and global levels," Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi said earlier this week.

Another issue that Indonesia needs to be on the lookout for, is protecting the domestic market from products that enter the market illegally or by dumping, or foreign subsidies – as a result of the current low global economic growth, she said. (ANTARA)

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has detained three Vietnamese-flagged fishing vessels in the North Natuna waters for illegal fishing.

"The vessels were captured last December 30. The Vietnamese vessels are KG 95118 TS, with five Vietnamese crew members; KG 94629 TS, with 18 Vietnamese crew members; and KG 93255 TS, with 13 Vietnamese crew members," Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Edhy Prabowo stated in Sungai Kakap Sub-district of Kubu Raya District, West Kalimantan, on Thursday.

The ministry’s three patrol ships, in coordination with the Indonesian Navy and Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla), took part in the operation to catch the illegal fishers.

"The three Vietnamese-flagged vessels resisted the arrest that resulted in damage to the ministry's patrol ships. The Ocra 03 patrol ship suffered the worst-possible damage," Prabowo stated.

The government has claimed that illegal fishing activities in the country's waters had inflicted losses to the tune of hundreds of trillions of rupiah a year to the state.

The war against illegal fishing activities has been spearheaded by former maritime and fisheries minister Susi Pudjiastuti with the support of other parties, especially the Indonesian Navy.

The government has also formed an Illegal Fishing Eradication Task Force (Task Force 115) to combat poaching in the Indonesian waters.

The Task Force 115 has synergized with other agencies and institutions in its operation.

The ministry had recently sunken 21 foreign fishing boats for poaching in Indonesian waters. In total, 41 foreign fishing boats were convicted of illegal fishing activities in the Indonesian waters. Several vessels have been sunken, while the rest will follow soon.(ANTARA)

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)