Indonesia seeks to enlarge bilateral swap agreements (BSA) with China and the Republic of Korea, while promoting the implementation of the agreement with Japan to battle a slumping currency.

The country’s Minister of Industry M. S. Hydayat said that the nation plans to ink a BSA with China in October when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Indonesia.

Indonesia makes every effort to deal with the country’s current account deficit because its import-export activities are heavily influenced by the financial and public debt crises in the country’s two key trade partners – the US and Europe, he said.

In August, Indonesia signed a BSA worth 12 billion USD with Japan as the value of Indonesia’s Rupiah (Rp) fell by more than 16 percent compared to the USD since the beginning of the year.

Indonesian Minister of Finance Chatib Basri said Indonesia’s Rp fell to the weakest level since April 2009, extending a slump that made it the worst-performing emerging-market currency this year, adding that t he country saw a deficit of 9.8 billion USD in current accounts in the second quarter of this year.

In 2009, Indonesia and China agreed to enter into a swap contract worth 100 billion yuan (16.3 billion USD) for three years in order to improve the shortage of foreign currency in Indonesia and promote trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.-VNA