EEU-Indonesia Business Dialogue provides a unique opportunity to find new points of growth between two sides

The EEU-Indonesia Business Dialogue took place on the second day of the EEF. In recent years cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union has been actively developing on the external track, both with individual states and with integration associations. The speakers talked about priority tasks in terms of deepening cooperation between the EEU and Indonesia, discussed what is needed to create sustainable logistics and build supply chains, and develop digital infrastructure.

Ivan Polyakov, Chairman of the Russia-ASEAN Business Council, moderated the business dialogue.

The head of the Business Council noted that this year the ASEAN chair is Indonesia, the largest economy with a share of more than 35% of the GDP of the entire association. And today's business dialogue provides a unique opportunity to discuss the prospects for further strengthening cooperation between the countries of the Eurasian Union and Indonesia.

Representatives of more than ten Indonesian government agencies, about ten business associations and companies, as well as regional leaders attended the event.

Andrey Slepnev, Minister of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission, said: "The volume of our trade turnover has doubled in the last two years. Trade is actively developing both in agricultural goods and industry.

Alexey Gruzdev, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, said that last year Indonesia ranked first among the Asean top ten in terms of trade turnover with Russia. The trade volume is growing and is steadily approaching $5 billion.

"For our part, we plan to focus primarily on the programme priorities of the Republic of Indonesia - those priorities that have been approved at the level of the country's leadership and government in particular. We have carefully studied and are guided by Indonesia's long-term development programme Indonesia Vision 2045 and are convinced that the implementation of this programme is possible only in international cooperation"

Alexey Gruzdev Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation

He stressed that energy and digital technologies are among the main priorities of Indonesia. "Supplies of energy resources give a significant increase in trade. There are plans for joint development and exploitation of deposits, for processing of extracted resources on the territory of Indonesia".

Musdhalifah Machmud, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs for the Republic of Indonesia, said that it is very important to solve the logistics problems, to make the delivery of raw materials from Eurasia to Indonesia easier.

According to Sergei Cheremin, Minister of the Moscow government, the Russian capital's solutions in the field of intelligent traffic management could be in demand in Indonesia.

"We and our colleagues discussed the possibility of using Moscow solutions in the field of digitalisation of the housing and utilities sector. They were extremely interested in these proposals. Colleagues from Jakarta, who visited Moscow, would like to borrow our experience in developing healthcare, including the implementation of the electronic management system for Moscow clinics, which facilitates access to medical services. This is the Moscow telemedicine system, the use of artificial intelligence," said Cheremin.

Jose Antonio Morato Tavares, Ambassador of Indonesia to Russia and Belarus, stressed that the two countries have a huge potential and it should be used.

The Ambassador said that his country is interested in cooperation with Russia in energy, petrochemicals, oil refining and alternative energy: "We are now negotiating the signing of free trade agreements. Such measures will contribute to financial sustainability. We already have signed trade agreements in national currencies with China and Malaysia. I hope that with Russia we will soon come to that as well."

The slogan of the 2023 EEF is "Eurasian integration in a multipolar world".

Photo: TV BRICS