Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – Indonesia discussed the importance of strengthening trade and investment cooperation with China when the two countries have established a comprehensive strategic partnership relationship for 10 years.
This was discussed by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi when chairing the 4th Indonesia-China Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang at the Pancasila Building at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, Wednesday.
According to Retno, strengthening trade cooperation with Beijing is important because China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner.
“During the meeting, I specifically conveyed a request that various trade barriers be overcome,” Retno said in a press conference after the meeting.
Indonesia is also determined to increase investment cooperation with China considering that Beijing was the second largest investor in Indonesia last year, and even became Indonesia’s number one investor in the last quarter of last year, said Retno.
To Qin, Retno emphasized that Indonesia also continues to open investment doors for China, including in utilizing Indonesian workers, protecting the environment, strengthening quality green investment, and infrastructure cooperation.
However, Retno stressed that the investment climate in Indonesia would still consider the interests of the Indonesian people.
Retno also invited China to strengthen partnerships in the health sector.
According to her, Indonesia and China have worked very well together in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic which is a reminder for each country to strengthen health infrastructure, including the pharmaceutical industry.
The health partnership proposed by Indonesia is the implementation of research and development cooperation on vaccines and genomics, strengthening the production capacity of medicinal raw materials (BBO), implementation of sister hospital cooperation commitments, and building herbal centers in Indonesia.
The COVID-19 pandemic is also considered to have opened the eyes of the world regarding the importance of connectivity cooperation and inter-society relations. For this reason, Retno encouraged China to restore connectivity between the two countries.
“Post-pandemic, one thing that is important to fix immediately is the problem of connectivity. With good connectivity, economic relations and relations between communities will quickly recover,” she said.
The JCBC Indonesia-China meeting was held for the first time since it last took place in Beijing in 2018.
The meeting was also Qin’s first official visit to the region after taking on new duties as China’s foreign minister late last year. (mhn/bbs)
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