Indonesia to focus on promoting economic diplomacy

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has stressed that the country’s orientations and foreign policy priorities in the next five year should focus on economic diplomacy.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Addressing a meeting with 131 ambassadors and heads of Indonesia’s diplomatic missions overseas on January 9, the President expressed his wish that 70 to 80 of workloads of the Indonesian diplomatic representative agencies overseas will focus on economic diplomacy because that is what the country needs.

Besides, he called on the heads of missions to attract more investors, particularly those who showed interest in investing in industry sectors that have high import contents, such as the petrochemical or oil and gas sectors. He also asked them to attract investors who would dole out funds for the downstream natural resource sectors to help diversify Indonesia’s exports portfolio, according to the Jakarta Post reported.

Throughout 2019, Indonesia rolled out several policies to court investments, particularly for the production of goods that substitute imported raw materials for export-oriented companies.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced five priorities in Indonesia's foreign policy in 2020 and the next five years with the first on promoting economic diplomacy./.

VNA