Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – The Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan is optimistic that quality Indonesian export products will continue to increase in the Saudi Arabian market.
This optimism was conveyed by the Minister of Trade Zulkifli at a dinner meeting with the Saudi-Indonesia Business Council and Saudi Businessman at the residence of the shareholder of Albilad Bank, Syech Ibrahim Assubaie, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday (21/1) local time.
“I hope Indonesian businessmen and Saudi Arabian businessmen can continue to work together to improve business and trade relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The key is communication, communication and more intense communication,” said Zulkifli in a written statement in Jakarta, Sunday.
Zulkifli said Indonesia was preparing export business actors to be able to meet Saudi Arabia’s market demand by paying attention to standards, quality, quantity, capital, sustainability and skills.
Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner for Indonesia. Saudi Arabia occupies the eighth position as the export destination country for Indonesian processed food products, including canned tuna, instant noodles, chili sauce, soy sauce, and biscuits and wafers.
Apart from that, Indonesia is also preparing to become the World Trade Center for Halal Products in 2024.
“I see that trade from the two countries can be increased even further. Various products needed by Saudi Arabia, such as footwear, clothing, pharmaceuticals, construction services, processed food, paper, plywood and other daily consumption products can still be increased,” said Zulkifli.
He said that Indonesia is one of the few countries that will continue the trend of economic recovery in 2022. In fact, several of Indonesia’s main trading partners, such as China, the United States and the European Union, experienced a weakening of economic growth in the second quarter of 2022.
“Since the end of 2021, Indonesia’s economic growth has managed to maintain above 5 percent. In the third quarter of 2022 the economy grew 5.72 percent,” explained Zulkifli.
During the recovery, exports became one of the main components driving economic growth. The contribution of exports of goods and services has even continued to increase from the second quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022, from 20.46 percent to 26.23 percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP).
“As Minister of Trade, I was given the task by Indonesian President Joko Widodo to increase non-oil and gas exports, especially to strategic trading partner countries such as Saudi Arabia,” he said.
In the January-October 2022 period, the performance of Indonesia-Saudi Arabia’s non-oil and gas exports rose 26.48 percent to US$2.43 billion. This value has increased compared to the same period in 2021 which amounted to US$1.92 billion. (mhn/bbs)
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