The Saudi Arabian market occupies the eighth position as the export destination country for Indonesian processed food products, including canned tuna, instant noodles, chili sauce, soy sauce as well as biscuits and wafers.

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia’s Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said Indonesia is preparing exporters to meet the demands of the Saudi Arabian market by paying attention to standards, quality, quantity, capital, sustainability and skills.

Zulkifli Hasan made the remarks during a dinner meeting with the Saudi-Indonesia Business Council and Saudi Businessmen at the residence of the shareholder of Albilad Bank, Syech Ibrahim Assubaie, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday (Jan. 21).

"I hope Indonesian businessmen and Saudi Arabian businessmen can continue to work together to improve business and trade relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The key is more intense communication," Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said as quoted by the Indonesian Ministry of Trade on Sunday.

Zulkifli is optimistic that quality Indonesian export products can continue to increase their presence in the Saudi Arabian market. In addition, Indonesia is also preparing to become the World Halal Product Trade Center in 2024.

Indonesia is one of the few countries that would continue the trend of economic recovery in 2022, said the minister, adding that several of Indonesia's main trading partners, such as China, the United States and the European Union, experienced a weakening of economic growth in the second quarter of 2022.

"Since the end of 2021, Indonesia's economic growth has managed to maintain above five percent. In the third quarter of 2022 the economy grew 5.72 percent," Zulkifli noted.

During the recovery time, exports are one of the main components in driving the economic growth, and the contribution of exports of goods and services has even continued to increase from the second quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022, from 20.46 percent to 26.23 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP), he said.

As a trade minister, I am tasked by Indonesian President Joko Widodo to increase non-oil and non-gas exports, especially to strategic trade partner countries such as Saudi Arabia," according to the minister.

In the January-October 2022 period, the performance of Indonesia-Saudi Arabia's non-oil and non-gas exports rose 26.48 percent to 2.43 billion U.S. dollars, an increase compared to the same period in 2021 which amounted to 1.92 billion dollars.

Zulkifli pointed out that Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner for Indonesia. Saudi Arabia occupies the eighth position as the export destination country for Indonesian processed food products, including canned tuna, instant noodles, chili sauce, soy sauce, and biscuits and wafers.

“I see that trade between the two countries can be increased even more. Trade in various products needed by Saudi Arabia, such as footwear, clothing, pharmaceuticals, construction services, processed food, paper, plywood and other daily consumption products,” he said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window