Meeting with the Chinese Minister of Trade, Airlangga Discusses the Contents of his Speech

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto (Photo: VOI doc)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto conveyed the contents of a conversation with Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao.

"The talks with Trade Minister Wang Wentao were that we discussed the MoU that had been signed between the Ministry of Trade and the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, one of which was about the 'two countries twin park'," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto quoted Antara.

The meeting with Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao himself also took place on Friday (17/7) evening.

"For example, the development of industrial areas in Batam can be improved because there are indeed some challenges for Chinese companies operating outside the Special Economic Zone (KEK) who also want to get facilities at least equivalent to those in the KEK and we discussed the MoU which was signed some time ago which has an investment of 2.5 billion US dollars," said Airlangga.

During the meeting, Airlangga said that he and Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao evaluated industrial and trade cooperation, including in relation to cooperation in the digital sector.

China, said Airlangga, is one of the main partners in the economic sector with Indonesia considering that the value of Indonesia's and China's bilateral trade in 2025 reached 167.48 billion US dollars with an increase in Indonesian exports of 16.7 percent.

Meanwhile, with Hong Kong, as part of China, Indonesia's trade value is around 6 billion US dollars so that when combined between China and Hong Kong, the total becomes 173 billion US dollars.

Meanwhile, Chinese investment in Indonesia reached around 7.58 billion US dollars in the same period, while investment from Hong Kong reached 10.1 billion US dollars, so that when combined, the total investment from China and Hong Kong in Indonesia in 2025 reached around 18 billion US dollars, making it the largest source of foreign investment for Indonesia.

It is planned that on Saturday (18/7), Coordinating Minister Airlangga will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Shanghai.

In addition to meeting with Trade Minister Wang Wentao, Airlangga also met with two global technology companies from China, namely Huawei and ByteDance on Friday (17/7).

The meeting discussed opportunities for cooperation in the fields of AI, digital infrastructure, digital talent development, and technology investment.

During the meeting with Huawei, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Airlangga revealed that the company is one of the strategic and potential partners that can support digital transformation in Indonesia and discussed cooperation opportunities in four areas, namely investment in AI and cloud infrastructure, strengthening the digital talent and cybersecurity ecosystem, acceleration of digitalization of government and MSMEs, and the implementation of green energy solutions in data centers.

"After Indonesia officially became one of the founding countries of WAICO, we want to ensure a real leap in technological cooperation. Huawei is a potential strategic partner to support national digital transformation with its capabilities in the fields of AI, telecommunications infrastructure and cloud computing," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with ByteDance, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Airlangga expressed his appreciation for ByteDance's strategic investment and long-term commitment in Indonesia, especially through Tokopedia and TikTok Shop which have advanced the digital trade ecosystem.

"The Indonesian government appreciates ByteDance's trust in continuing to strengthen its investment in Indonesia. The presence of ByteDance not only strengthens the digital economic ecosystem, but also opens wider opportunities for millions of MSMEs to grow through digital platforms and cross-border trade," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Huawei is considered to be a company that has superior capabilities in the fields of telecommunications infrastructure, cloud computing, and AI.

Meanwhile, ByteDance is a giant technology company that develops the world's most popular digital platforms such as TikTok, CapCut, Lark, Toutiao and Douyin.

The government also continues to encourage the expansion of collaboration with ByteDance to support the internationalization of Indonesian MSMEs products so that they can reach a wider international market.

In addition, Coordinating Minister Airlangga also invited ByteDance to explore expanding cooperation in the field of AI, including Large Language Models (LLM), machine learning and generative AI.

"Indonesia has a large digital market, a growing digital talent, and a strong commitment to building an inclusive AI ecosystem. We invite ByteDance to explore opportunities for the establishment of an AI research center, the development of digital talent, and innovation collaboration that can benefit both countries," added Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Partnerships with Huawei and ByteDance, as well as Indonesia's participation in WAICO, are expected to accelerate technology transfer, bridge the global technology gap (bridging the AI divide), and create a more productive and competitive national digital economy ecosystem.