Total exports and imports fromthe two nations have dropped steadily from 53.14 billion USD in 2011 to 31.27billion USD in 2015, while Indonesian shipments to Japan went down by 46.5percent, according to data from Trade Map of the International Trade Centre.
Shipments of Indonesia productscould be improved by focusing on value-added products which Japan is alsointerested, said Chairman of the Asian-Pacific Committee, under the IndonesianChamber of Commerce and Industry Bernardino Vega.
Meanwhile, Iman Pambagyo,Indonesian Trade Ministry director general for international tradenegotiations, said Indonesia and Japan still can boost exports despite slowrecovery in the global economy.
He also added that theIndonesian-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA), which has taken effectsince 2008, is among topics of concern during a meeting between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The meeting isscheduled to take place on January 15 in Indonesia.
Indonesia plans to ask Japan tolower tariff barrier for its agricultural and fishery shipments, whichcurrently stand at more than 10 percent, at the meeting.
Meanwhile, Japan may askIndonesia to follow its commitment to reduce its import tariff from 45 percentto 20 percent on some 3,000 cc cars from Japan, which as stipulated in IJEPAand applied since the beginning of 2015.
Infrastructure and investmentwill also be raised for both leaders.
Japan is currently the second largestforeign investor in Indonesia, with its investment increasing from 1.5 billionUSD in 2011 to 2.9 billion USD in the first six months of 2016 – equal to thetotal amount in 2015. The figure is expected to reach a record high of 5billion USD in 2016, mostly from chemical and steel manufacturing.
Japan has signed various projectswith Indonesia, including the Jakarta-Surabaya high speed railway and Pamtipan deep-waterport in West Java.-VNA