Cooperation Makin Erat, RI And India Agrees Toaccept Stronger Trade Relations

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto (right) met the Minister of Trade of India Piyash Goyal (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA Indonesia and India have agreed to improve bilateral relations between the two countries by focusing on intensifying trade cooperation.

This commitment was achieved after Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto met with India's Minister of Trade Piyash Goyal in Los Angeles, United States last weekend.

According to Airlangga, India expects Indonesia's support in various economic cooperations, such as palm oil, taxation, meat, rice, automotive industry, imports of tires and also coal.

"This collaboration is useful for increasing the volume of trade and also accelerating the recovery of the national economy," he said in an official statement quoted on Monday, September 12.

Airlangga explained that the government is targeting cooperation with India to generate a trade volume of 50 billion US dollars.

"Currently, the volume of trade is around 17 billion US dollars," he said.

Airlangga also revealed that this meeting discussed the development of cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector with the possibility of India building manufacturing in Indonesia.

As additional information, the Indian company has established synergies with Kalbe Farma since 2018. Regarding the collaboration between Andaman and Nicobar, Coordinating Minister Airlangga encourages the realization of joint task force cooperation with the Aceh Provincial Government.

"We hope that the realization of this collaboration of the joint task force of the Government of India and the Aceh Provincial Government can soon produce various low hanging fruit," he said.

On the same occasion, the Minister of Trade of India, Piyash Goyal, stated that the Indonesian government should provide policies and incentives.

"This can support the trade in products of the two countries," he said.

To note, Indonesia-India's trading volume in the period January to June 2022 is around 16.6 billion US dollars, an increase of 81 percent from the same period last year.