Indonesia, Vietnam Bilateral Trade Aimed to Reach US$15 Bln by 2028

• May 10, 2023

TEMPO.CO, Labuan Bajo –  President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh – during a bilateral meeting amid the 42nd ASEAN Summit – are sure the cooperation between the two countries will help increase trade value to reach US$ 15 billion by 2028.

This was mentioned by Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi during the summit held in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara on May 9. She believes the two leaders are convinced that the goal can be reached.

“With conditions that every trade restriction or challenge is reduced or eliminated entirely,” said the Minister, Antaranews reported.

The trade goal increase became an agreement between the two countries when President Jokowi received a state visit from Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Puc at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, at the end of last year, on December 22, 2022.

The agreement was reached after the two leaders learned that the US$10 billion trade target set for 2023 had been exceeded in 2021, which logged a total of US$ 11.06 billion.

President Jokowi at that time also called attention to the obstacles of Indonesian agricultural and fruit products upon entering the Vietnamese market.

“In addition, the two leaders also agreed to enhance cooperation in the field of new and renewable energy (EBT),” Retno said.

President Jokowi and Prime Minister Chinh also agreed to accelerate the implementation arrangement and ratification process of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) negotiations. The negotiations were completed after an intensive 12-year process regarding the EEZ boundary lines between the two countries based on the 1982 UNCLOS.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1723976/indonesia-vietnam-bilateral-trade-aimed-to-reach-us15-bln-by-2028