JAKARTA: Indonesia and Russia have agreed to further strengthen the existing good ties in the fields of trade, industry, investment, energy, transportation, infrastructure, culture, tourism, high technology and health, a senior minister said.
“By holding this business forum, the two countries will hopefully reach agreements on new businesses to enhance economic cooperation,” Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution said while attending the 11th meeting of the Indonesia-Russia Joint Commission on Monday. Also present at the meeting were Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis V Manturov and tens of Russian businessmen.
Darmin gave the assurance that the two countries will be able to make breakthroughs and take strategic steps so that the trade, that has remained stagnant, expands. For its part, Indonesia will increase its direct non-oil/non-gas exports to Russia. “This is important as some of trade between the two countries has been happening through a third country,” he noted.
During the January-July 2016 period, trade between Indonesia and Russia reached US$1.07 billion, down 4.15 percent from US$1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. For all of 2015, the bilateral trade was valued at US$1.98 billion, down 25 percent from Rp2.64 billion recorded in 2014.
Russian investments in Indonesia since 2010 were recorded at US$8.95 million, according to the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM). On the occasion, the two countries also signed the Agreed Minutes of the Eleventh Session of Inter-governmental Indonesian-Russian Joint Commission on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation which cover various strategic cooperation programs.
