Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian government confirms that the national palm oil industry has made significant progress in meeting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"Indonesia is committed to meeting 17 targets of SDGs 2030 and has succeeded in achieving significant developments," Deputy Minister of Foreign Mahendra Siregar said at an online seminar on Sustainable Vegetable Oil: Opportunities for Increased Two-Way Trade on Thursday (Jan. 14).

He emphasized that Indonesia rejects discriminatory actions on palm oil products sustainability as the government and other relevant parties keep making efforts to meet the standards, and welcomes dialogues with all partners, both at the regional and global levels.

Earlier, the European Union (EU) and ASEAN member countries had agreed to improve relations from a Dialogue Partnership to a Strategic Partnership, as well as form a Joint Working Group on Vegetable Oil at the 23rd EU-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on December 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Ambassador to Sweden Kamapradipta Isnomo said that the commitment of the two parties to form a Joint Working Group indicated a common vision to resolve environmental challenges and issues in the vegetable oil sector from a more objective and non-discriminatory perspective.

The seminar was attended by two Sweden-based expert panelists in the fields of sustainability and vegetable oil, namely Francis X. Johnson, Ph.D who is a senior researcher at the Stockholm Environmental Institute, and Fumi Harahap, Ph.D, who is currently pursuing a post-doctoral degree at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

The webinar was organized by the Indonesian Embassy in Stockholm to encourage discussion on sustainable vegetable oil industry.

Palm oil and its derivative products are one of Indonesia's leading export commodities to Sweden.

In the last three years, the import value of Swedish palm oil from Indonesia has continued to increase from 14.5 million U.S. dollars in 2017 to 32.3 million U.S. dollars in 2019.

Reporting by Indonesia Window