Ministry Of Trade Opens Expansion Of Export Access For Regions To Non-traditional Countries

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) is said to encourage exports to non-traditional export markets to maintain the performance of the trade balance. One of them is through the mechanism of international trade cooperation and penetration of exports to new markets.

Head of the Trade Policy Agency (BK Perdag) of the Ministry of Trade Kasan said that in 2022 and 2023, East Kalimantan will be the 2nd largest province to contribute to Indonesia's non-oil and gas export growth.

"The determination of the capital city of Nusantara (IKN) in this province has the opportunity to encourage greater growth in foreign trade performance in the future," he said in a press release from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, quoted on Sunday, September 24.

According to Kasan, the government continues to be aware of a number of national trade challenges that cause the global economy and trade to still grow slowly in 2023. One of them is the barrier to trade in Indonesia's export destination countries.

"International trade cooperation can be a solution to facilitate the settlement of trade barriers between Indonesia and partner countries," he said.

Kasan added that the Ministry of Trade also has several foreign trade strategies, including increasing exports of manufactured products and participating in global value chains.

Amid global uncertainty, Indonesia's economic growth shows a stable value, even in the second quarter of 2023 it can grow 5.17 percent. In addition, the annual inflation rate in August 2023 reached 3.27 percent, still relatively lower than other countries," he stressed.

On the same occasion, the Head of the Balikpapan City Trade Office, Haemusri, said that the central government had paid serious attention to the export market in the regions through policies and encouraged the expansion of market access.

"Business actors need to know non-traditional markets that are of concern to the central government as an export share that must be optimized so that we don't just get caught up in the export market," he said.

To note, a number of other macroeconomic indicators also showed positive growth, such as Indonesia's trade balance which again recorded a surplus of USD 24.34 billion in January August 2023.