Indonesia: Kadin Signs 12 MoUs with Philippine

• May 01, 2017

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President Joko Widodo or Jokowi with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) attended the 30th ASEAN Summit held in Manila, Philippine, on April 28-30, 2017.

On the sidelines of the summit, Kadin was involved in a business dialogue with local businessowners held at Conrad Hotel in Manila on Monday Morning, May 1, 2017. Kadin chairman Rosan P. Roeslani said that Kadin witnessed the signings of 12 memorandums of understanding (MoU) between Indonesian and Philippines business owners.

Rosan revealed that the MoUs cover cooperation in property, pharmacy, infrastructure, tourism, distribution and consumer product sectors.

“The investment value is approximately US$300 million,” Rosan said via a text message on Monday.

Kadin deputy chairman for international relationship Shinta Widjaja Kamdani said that Indonesian Kadin also signed an MoU with the Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) to strengthen ties and exchange information on trade barriers between the two countries.

Kadin also visited Alfamart’s convenient store that was recently opened in Manila. According to Shinta, Kadin fully supports Indonesian business expansion in the ASEAN market. This year, Alfamart has set a target to open up to 400 stores in Philippine.

“Indonesian brand expansion to Philippine will provide access to Indonesian products, particularly those of SMEs,” Shinta added.

Another Kadin’s agenda during the visit to Philippine was to support the plan to open a Santos-Bitung vessel route, which is expected to improve trades between Indonesia and Philippine. Rosan said that the route is one of the priorities in the ASEAN Roro Network Project.

With such an access to Philippine, Rosan claimed that commodities and products from Eastern Indonesia will reach Philippine via Bitung Port.

“In addition, the shipping cost will be cheaper, and the shipping time will be shorter. Businessowners of the two countries have started listing commodities and products to be exported and imported,” Rosan said.

Philippine is the 11th largest trade partner for Indonesia, with a total trade value of US$3.51 billion in 2015. Last year, the figure increased to US$4.9 billion with an average growth of 6.3 percent over the last five years.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/05/01/056871145/Kadin-Signs-12-MoUs-with-Philippine