Indonesian Govt Increases Trade Cooperation with New Zealand

JAKARTA, NNC - Indonesia and New Zealand are committed to increasing the value of bilateral trade by up to two times a minimum in the next four years, one of which is through cooperation in the industrial sector. Its value is targeted to be NZD4 billion (IDR40 trillion) compared to 2017's only NZD1.76 billion (around IDR17.6 trillion).

"What we will push, for example they can open a market for automotive and components from Indonesia, then they develop dairy products in Indonesia. Well, this is what can be done and we believe the trade can go up," said Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto after meeting New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters in Jakarta on Thursday (10/4/2018).

So far, said Airlangga, Indonesia has exported automotive products to the ASEAN, the Middle East to Latin America. "We see the automotive market in Australia and New Zealand is very good. Moreover, the position of the location is closer," he explained.

The government also opens up opportunities for New Zealand to increase its investment, especially in the milk processing industry sector.

For information, the milk processing industry is one of the mainstay sectors for New Zealand. They become investors and exporters of the world's largest dairy products, including Indonesia.

For example, Fonterra has invested its capital in Indonesia amounting to IDR735 billion (NZD36 million) since 2015.

The construction of a milk processing plant in Bekasi, West Java is the realization of Fonterra's largest investment in the ASEAN region in the past decade.

In addition, according to the Minister of Industry, New Zealand has the power of technology in the development of the food and beverage industry. The expected effort is the transfer of technology to boost the competitiveness of the national food and beverage industry in the digital era.

Moreover, for Indonesia, the food and beverage industry consistently contributes greatly to the national economy, reflected in the contribution to GDP of the non-oil and gas processing industry reaching 35.87 percent.

Source: Netral News