REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUTA - Indonesia's position in the face of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) raised concerns as it had a lot of homeworks to do before the AEC was introduced at the end of 2015, an official stated.
"We are concerned about the position of Indonesia, which is still below that of other ASEAN member countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand," Ariyanto Sagala, the head of the industrial quality and policy assessment affairs of the Ministry of Industry, stated on Friday.
He explained that based on a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Indonesia's competitiveness index was ranked 38 in the 2013-2014 period. Previously it was ranked 50th.
"Indonesia's rating in the ASEAN region is still below Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Thailand," Ariyanto added.
In logistics term, Indonesia's position is also lower than that of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. "Besides that, we also have problems relating to human resources productivity," the Ministry of Industry official remarked.
Indonesia is the biggest market in the ASEAN region but it fails to adopt the correct step, then it will only become the market for other countries. Indonesias population accounts for 40 to 60 percent of the total ASEAN population of 612 million.
Basically, Indonesia has not yet had a large market share in the ASEAN region, as the values of its intra and extra ASEAN trade were still lesser than those of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. In terms of exports and imports in the ASEAN region, Indonesia has trade surpluses only with Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. Indonsia's exports to Myanmar stood at 556.37 million USD and its imports were worth 73.15 million USD.
With Cambodia, Indonesia's exports accounted for 312.41 million USD and exports 17.84 million USD. Its exports to the Philippines are worth 3.81 billion USD, while its imports stood at 777.38 million USD.
In other ASEAN countries Indonesia still suffered trade deficits. Its exports against imports to Thailand stood at 6.06 billion USD and 10.70 billion USD respectively, to Singapore 16.69 billion USD and 25.58 billion USD and to Laos worth 5.85 million USD and 7.54 million USD.
In the meantime, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa earlier stated that Indonesia had set up a committee to deal with things in the face of the AEC.
"We have established the AEC committee to strengthen our preparations," the minister explained.
The new committee has been given the task of, among other things, preparing to face the implementation of the AEC, and to identify opportunities and challenges that might be faced by the government and businessmen.
The preparations included those for trade, investment and the flow of people. "We have reached around 84 percent," the minister stated, referring to Indonesia's achievement in accordance with the plans and targets set for the implementation of the AEC.
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