Coordinating Minister Airlangga Optimistic Regional Cooperation To Accelerate Global Economic Recovery

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA – Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto stated that the regional cooperation scheme summarized in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has an important role in facing today's challenges.

According to Airlangga, stronger collaboration is important towards economic recovery.

"RCEP has greater significance than ever before and it offers concrete action to create a free, fair and non-discriminatory global trade and investment environment," he said in a press statement on Friday, July 29.

Airlangga added, through collective synergies, it is hoped that it can encourage the strengthening of regional supply chains, as well as accelerate the development of human resources and the digital economy.

"All of these things are very important in the global economic recovery and economic resilience in the future," he said.

On this occasion, Airlangga also revealed that Indonesia was trying to optimize the RCEP cooperation scheme to establish closer relations with China.

He believes that the East Asian country can become a strategic investor in Indonesia's new industry and digital economy.

"I hope the implementation of RCEP will attract more investment," he said.

For information, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was first introduced by Indonesia in 2011 when he was the Chair of ASEAN.

At that time, Indonesia succeeded in convincing ASEAN Member States to develop a comprehensive regional economic partnership which was later named RCEP.

Meanwhile, the 2022 period marks the 72nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and China.

In recent times, the relationship between the two countries has developed into a mutually beneficial cooperation model in the region.

"We also look forward to stronger cooperation with Qingdao City and Shandong Province, as well as the business community, in line with their business development in Indonesia and in the RCEP region," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.