Indonesia, China look to triple bilateral trade in next three years

Indonesia and China are planning to triple bilateral trade from 31 billion USD to 100 billion USD in the next three years, Indonesian Trade Minister M Lutfi has said.

Indonesian Trade Minister M Lutfi

Addressing an online press conference on April 2 with Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir during his working visit to China,  Lutfi said that, to that end, the two countries will explore the Bilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation (BETC), signed in 2011, to turn it into a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).

He said that during his visit, the two sides discussed measures deepen trade activities of the two countries with the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and also discussed low-hanging fruit in order to improve the trade balance between the two countries.

During this visit, at least five Chinese companies signed deals to import swallow's nests from Indonesia for more than 1.13 billion USD, and also add exports and investments for furniture products from Shandong Wood and Furniture, with an amount of more than 200 million USD.

Further, 150 Chinese companies will bring in investment of 1.38 billion USD into West Kalimantan and employ more than 3,000 workers, he added.

China is currently Indonesia’s largest trade partner with two-way trade hitting 71.4 billion USD last year./.

VNA