Illustrative photo. (Photo: AFP/VNA) mô tả cho ảnh Jakarta (VNA) – ASEANhas sufficient resources to become a centre of world economic growth with a GDPreaching USD 3.36 trillion in 2021 and a population of 650 million people, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said on March 15.
Trade between ASEAN and its partners has also grownsignificantly, reaching 34% in the last decade. Meanwhile, foreign investmentpoured into ASEAN in 2021 reached 179 billion USD. The majority of ASEANcountries had inflation rates below the global level.
The Indonesian official said that Indonesia as ASEANchair this year set 16 Priority Economic Deliverables (PED) which aredivided into three strategic drives including recovery-rebuilding, digital economy, andsustainability.
Indonesia’s main strategy to increase economicintegration and strengthen competitiveness in turning ASEAN into a centre ofworld economic growth is digital transformation by expanding local currencytransactions and accelerating negotiations Digital Economic FrameworkAgreement (DEFA).
Minister Airlangga said that to encourage theimprovement of these various achievements, ASEAN needs to take advantage ofvarious economic cooperation in the region, both in the form of the ASEAN plus1 free trade agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) which was initiated by Indonesia in 2011.
In addition, ASEAN needs to strengthen air and seaconnectivity, realise the ASEAN Power Grid, and promote food security bystrengthening the supply chain and regional logistics system. Particularly, thebloc must have inter-sectoral cooperation to ensure food security and develop amechanism to strengthen the early warning system.
According to Minister Airlangga, ASEAN needs to boostits sustainability agenda through the development of trans-ASEAN renewableenergy such as solar power, hydropower, electric vehicle ecosystem, andregional green economic framework.
Indonesia also aims to promote sustainable regionaldevelopment through the ASEAN - Indo-Pacific Forum (AIPF) in which, the publicand private sectors will be invited to participate in projects in the region tosupport green infrastructure, strengthened supply chains, digitaltransformation, and creative economy, as well as innovative and sustainablefinance./.
