Deputy Minister Of Trade Jerry Sambuaga: Indonesia Ready To Face Economic Recession Due To Positive Trade Performance Of The Republic Of Indonesia During The Pandemic

Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga said Indonesia was ready to face an economic recession if it referred to the performance of the trade sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most real “Indicator, until September 2022, Indonesia's trade balance was still in a surplus of 39.87 billion US dollars in September 2022,” he said when he was a speaker at the seminar “ Able Export ” in Palembang, Thursday, November 3, which was also attended by the Director of Defense Resources of the Directorate General of Defense, Directorate General Pothan, Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia Brigadier General Farid Amran. During the pandemic, he said, the trade sector had never experienced a decline, in fact it continued to grow and even had a surplus. Even though at that time, all countries were under pressure because they never expected the pandemic to spread to nearly 200 countries in the world. Indonesia's trade activities, which were monitored from export performance, he said, actually experienced an increase or never a deficit. Reflecting on this past condition, Jerry is optimistic that Indonesia will be able to face the recession that is currently the scourge of the world. There are factors that according to him cannot be ruled out, namely Indonesia's ability to increase the portion of exports in the form of industrial products. Currently, 70 percent of export products are industrial products, which means that Indonesia has been downstreaming or no longer only selling raw goods. “Ini adalah kekuatan Indonesia untuk menjaga ketahanan negara,” kata dia, dilansir dari Antara. Director of Defense Resources (Dirsumdahan) of the Directorate General of Pothan, Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia, Brigadier General Farid Amran, said that President Joko Widodo's strong desire for Indonesia was not limited to exporting raw goods, one of the efforts to maintain state resilience. Indonesia has imposed a ban on the export of nickel ore since January 1, 2020, which was stipulated through the Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 11 of 2019. "Our “Our mining area is the raw material for making weapons, you can imagine if after becoming a weapon in another country it actually uses to attack our country. This is certainly something that cannot be accepted," he said. Therefore, all parties must realize that no country can escape the threat of war. Like the war between Ukraine and Russia, he said, even though the location is far from Indonesia, the fact is that this country also feels the impact. "Therefore, even though Indonesia is boosting exports to increase the country's foreign exchange, it still makes the needs in the country the main thing in the form of state resilience," he said.