The Government Of The Republic Of Indonesia And The European Union Have Accelerated The IEU CEPA To Increase Investment And Trade Transactions

Photo: Doc. Antara

JAKARTA - The Government of Indonesia and the European Union (EU) are pushing for the acceleration of the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU CEPA), whose implementation will increase investment and trade transactions, and resolve economic problems between the two parties.

This acceleration effort was carried out by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto with the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis in a meeting after the EU-ASEAN Business Summit in Brussels, Belgium, through his statement, quoted from Antara, Thursday 15 December.

The IEU CEPA negotiations are currently underway virtually, which is expected by both parties to achieve significant progress, considering that the two leaders, namely President Joko Widodo and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, have agreed to accelerate the settlement of the negotiations.

In addition, in this meeting, the two parties also discussed the issue of trade disputes which are currently being resolved through the path of The World Trade Organization (WTO).

The two parties also agreed to increase cooperation in the energy sector through the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) program by the European Union which was launched at the G20 Summit in Bali, last November.

Coordinating Minister Airlangga's meeting with the EVP Dombrovksis is the second time, after the two had met on the sidelines of the G20 Trade, the Investment and Industry Ministerial Meeting in Bali in September 2022.

For information, the value of Indonesia - EU trade reached 29.03 billion US dollars in 2021 and was recorded at 18.59 billion US dollars in the January-July 2022 period, an increase of 20 percent from the same period in 2021 which amounted to 15.52 billion US dollars.

Thus, the acceleration of the completion of the IEU - CEPA negotiations is considered very important because its implementation will be an alternative to increasing trade transactions, investing and solving problems between the two parties.