Jakarta (Indonesia Window) - The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is exploring bilateral business opportunities with Australia on nine priority trade sectors, one of which through a virtual business meeting involving 40 businessmen from two countries on Wednesday (Oct 7).

Indonesia’s nine priority trade sectors to Australia are furniture, chairs, plywood, apparel, plastic sacks and bags, rubber shoes, fertilizer, cellular phones and visual TV equipment, according to a statement from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs received by Indonesia Window on Monday.

Those priority sectors were mapped based on researches by the Policy Research and Development Agency at the ministry, and discussion with all Indonesian representatives in Australia, including the Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) Sydney, the Indonesian Investment Promotion Center (IIPC) Sydney, as well as Indonesian diaspora business players.

The ministry also facilitates Indonesian entrepreneurs to optimize their export capacity to Australia.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a virtual training on Certification and Standardization for Indonesian Export Products to Australia on October 6-8, 2020.

Since July 5, 2020, the two countries have implemented the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA).

“IA-CEPA will be meaningless if we are unable to overcome non-tariff barriers. Therefore, the training discussed three main issues of non-tariff barriers to the Australian market, namely biosecurity, packaging and labeling,” Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Y. Kristiarto S. Legowo said.

Australia is one of Indonesia's strategic trading partners.

The total bilateral trade between the two countries reached 7.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, with the value of Indonesia's exports to Australia amounting to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars and Australia’s exports to Indonesia was recorded at 5.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Reporting by Indonesia Window