REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Indonesia and United Kingdom (UK) commit to strengthen ties especially in bilateral trade.   

"Hopefully we will increase bilateral trade volume and none of us suffers from deficit trade," Coordinating Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Hatta Rajasa, said after his meeting with Prince Andrew, who visited Indonesia on September 18-20. 

Based on data, trade volume between two countries in 2011 reached 2.2 billion USD. This figure is expected to increase to seven billion USD in 2015. UK investment in Indonesia also increased from 500 million USD in 2011 to one billion USD in 2012. UK is one of top five investors in Indonesia.

Rajasa said that there were four topics discussed in the meeting, ranged from aviation, food security, energy to manufacturing. Prince Andrew highlighted the overcapacity of Soekarno-Hatta Airport. In food security, UK commits to help Indonesia in technology to increase productivity. Rajasa invited UK investors to invest in energy supply and renewable energy in Indonesia, such as wind and solar power, also geothermal energy. Rajasa also explained that Indonesia wanted to encourage downstream industry in order to reduce dependence on imported materials. 

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