KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. The Deputy Foreign Minister, Pahala Nugraha, is encouraging an increase in mutually beneficial trade and investment cooperation with Australia. This was conveyed by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Indonesia in his meeting with the Deputy Minister of Trade and Deputy Minister of Manufacturing Australia, Tim Ayres in Jakarta (26/01).

The Deputy Foreign Minister is pushing for a more balanced trade balance. Therefore, the Deputy Foreign Minister invites both countries to optimize the implementation of IA-CEPA, among others by overcoming non-tariff barriers for Indonesian commodities, such as fishery products and fruits through mutual acceptance cooperation.

In addition, the Deputy Foreign Minister welcomes the increasing cooperation between the two countries in the field of critical minerals and energy. The Deputy Foreign Minister encourages the utilization of the two countries' complementary mineral resources to support energy transition and achieve net zero emissions, including ensuring a fair share for Indonesia.

One of the efforts to be made is the development of an electric vehicle ecosystem. In this case, Indonesia and Australia already have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the "Establishment of a Bilateral Mechanism to Advance Electric Vehicle Collaboration" signed last November. "I encourage the immediate formation of a concrete cooperation plan to implement the MoU," said the Deputy Foreign Minister.

The Australian Deputy Minister of Trade made a two-day visit to Jakarta to strengthen the economic cooperation between the two countries. In addition, the Australian Deputy Minister of Trade also visited to socialize Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, which was launched by the Australian PM on September 6, 2023, during the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta.

Through this strategy, Australia will strengthen economic engagement in the region, especially in several priority sectors such as food and agriculture, green energy, infrastructure, digital economy, health, and education. In this regard, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Indonesia encourages that this strategy can be synergized with the existing mechanisms in ASEAN such as in the field of digital economy and energy transition.

Editor: Syamsul Azhar