Visiting India, Trade Minister Zulhas Will Fight For Indonesian Export Commodities

Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan paid attention and intensive efforts in working on export markets in non-traditional countries. One of them is India.

Trade Minister Zulhas, as Zulkifli Hasan is familiarly called, will leave for India on Monday today for a working visit.

Zulhas will be in India for two days, namely from March 13 to 14, 2023 to fight for Indonesia's leading commodity exports.

South Asia, especially India, is a potential non-traditional market that must be worked on intensively. For this reason, we will meet several parties to fight for Indonesia's superior products with Indian stakeholders," said the Trade Minister, in an official statement, Monday, March 13.

Zulhas mengatakan pada 2022, total perdagangan Indonesia dan India tercatat sebesar 32,71 miliar dolar AS atau naik 55,68 persen dari tahun sebelumnya yang tercatat sebesar 21.01 miliar dolar AS.

In the same year, Indonesia's exports to India were recorded at 23.38 billion US dollars while Indonesia's imports from India amounted to 9.33 billion US dollars.

Thus, Indonesia enjoyed a trade surplus of 14.05 billion US dollars.

Furthermore, Zulhas said, Indonesia's main export products to India include coal, palm oil and its derivatives, alloy iron, industrial monocarboxylate fatty acids, as well as copper ore and concentrates.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's main imported products from India include semi-finished iron products, sugar cane or sugar bits, peanuts, frozen buffalo meat, and ferro alloys.

During this working visit, Zulhas will also deliver a key speech at the Inauguration Session of the 2023 Industrial Conference (KTT) of the Indian Conference or The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit 2023 in New Delhi.

Zulhas will also give a speech at a special session (Country Session) on Indonesia at the CII 2023 Partnership Summit.

In addition to participating in the CII Partnership Summit, Zulhas is also scheduled to meet the Minister of Trade and Industry of India, Piyush Goyal, to follow up on the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia to explore bilateral trade negotiations with India.

The two ministers will also discuss bilateral trade issues and follow-up meetings at the G20 Trade, Industry and Investment Ministerial Meeting in Bali, September 2022.

Pada kunjungan kerja ini, Zulhas juga dijadwalkan melakukan pertemuan dengan menteri-menter negara teman yang turut hadir dalam KTT Kemitraan CII 2023 serta bertemu dengan sejumlah pelaku usaha India dan pimpinan asosiasi bisnis India.