Erick Thohir Says China Agrees To Buy Indonesian Palm Oil Products

BUMN Dock Photo

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said the Chinese government had agreed to buy one million palm oil products from Indonesia and other agricultural products produced by Indonesian farmers.

This was conveyed by Erick while accompanying President Joko Widodo (Jokowi)'s working visit to China on Tuesday, July 26.

Also present were Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, Minister of Investment/Head of Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia, and Indonesian Ambassador to Beijing Djauhari Oratmangun.

Erick said that Indonesia and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are strategic partners through mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

"Earlier we accompanied the President in a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at Villa 5, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing. Of course in the context of increasing trade cooperation," he said in a written statement, quoted Wednesday, July 27.

According to Erick, President Jokowi's move is a concrete commitment in advancing agricultural productivity and also the welfare of farmers.

With this cooperation, said Erick, Indonesia can increase the certainty of market absorption of farmers' products.

"This will maintain the price of Indonesian palm oil and the price of fresh fruit bunches for oil palm farmers. The government will continue to protect Indonesian farmers and create jobs," said Erick.

In addition, continued Erick, Indonesia can also emulate China's success in optimizing natural resources (SDA) and a large market for the progress of its country.

According to Erick, Indonesia, which has a wealth of natural resources and a large market, should be able to do the same thing with the aim of economic growth and increasing job opportunities for the people of Indonesia.

"As we know, so far our natural resources and large markets have not been optimally used for Indonesia's economic growth, this is what we want to continue to optimize," continued Erick.

In addition to the agricultural sector, said Erick, Indonesia has also established cooperation in the electric vehicle industry sector.

Erick said that cooperation with China is not only cooperation in terms of investment, but also includes technology transfer.

In addition, he said, the meeting also discussed the completion of the high-speed train which is a joint commitment between Indonesia and China.

"No less important, we also discussed exploring cooperation for the fisheries sector. Incidentally, SOEs are also building an integrated fisheries ecosystem," he said.

In the fisheries ecosystem, Erick said that SOEs collaborated with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), and the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI).

"We want the fishery ecosystem to follow the success of the agricultural ecosystem in the Makmur program. For this reason, we at SOEs have started to run three initiatives for fishermen, such as funding fishermen by distributing people's business loans (KUR) and PNM in the fisheries sector, supporting fishery facilities by improving fuel management, to create market access," he concluded.