Indo-Pacific Economic Ministers Meeting After Held, Government Explores Real Benefits for Indonesia

JAKARTA – Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, who led the Indonesian delegation has completed following a series of agendas for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework Ministerial Meeting (IPEF-MM) which took place in the United States this week.

In his statement, Coordinating Minister Airlangga stated that the pandemic has caused supply chain disruption and is now the biggest challenge for several countries.

"We take the disruption due to COVID-19 in the supply chain as an opportunity to improve the mechanism to be more transparent, with better problem mapping to produce more concrete solutions", he was quoted as saying on the official website on Sunday, September 11.

According to Airlangga, if the estuary of all the focus in the discussion, in the end, it is related to humans or workers.

“Meanwhile, the trade will be a platform that provides concrete opportunities to provide real solutions for workers. IPEF can be a forum that equates the level of 'playing field' for companies (private sector) in IPEF participating countries, both small and large companies", he said.

Airlangga welcomed the conclusions conveyed by the participants or IPEF partners at the end of the meeting agenda.

"The Indonesian government respects the values ​​of justice, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability based on considerations that have been agreed upon in the multilateral mechanism", he said.

Airlangga added that the Indonesian government would immediately follow up at the technical level to encourage tangible benefits for national economic development.

"We agreed to continue to intensify technical discussions and push for concrete deliverables in a short time and the plan is to meet again this October to discuss the follow-up", he stressed.

On the same occasion, United States Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, said that if this first in-person meeting was an undeniable success, 14 countries came together to map out a path forward that will create economic opportunities, improve labor conditions, and promote sustainability for all regional economies.

"We are proud of the progress that has been made and excited to continue to build momentum in this joint effort", she said.

Minister Gina revealed that a follow-up meeting will soon be held to make concrete results and provide tangible benefits, not only for the United States but also for the 13 other countries that are participants in IPEF.

"All the focus in the discussion, in the end, is related to humans or workers, meanwhile trade will be a platform that provides concrete opportunities to provide real solutions for workers", she said.

For information, IPEF-MM is the first official ministerial meeting between 14 partner countries that are members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) – which represents more than 40 percent of the world economy and 28 percent of global trade in goods and services.

This meeting is a very important milestone in the effort to achieve a high standard and inclusive economic framework in the Indo-Pacific region.