REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SINGAPORE -- Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi met her Singaporean counterpart Minister K. Shanmugam to discuss bilateral cooperation focusing on trade and investment.
"The main focus of the meeting was trade and investment. However, the number to be increased was not mentioned, but Singaporean Minister of Foreign Affairs Shanmugam said only a quarter of our bilateral economic cooperation potential has, so far, been tapped. So, 75 percent needs to be explored," Minister Marsudi remarked at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore on Wednesday, (Nov. 26).
Currently, Singapore is the second-largest trade partner of Indonesia, with trade valued at 42.3 billion USD in 2013 and 42.99 billion USD during January-July 2014. On the other hand, in the January-July 2014 period, the value of trade between Singapore and Indonesia reached 43.4 billion USD. Besides this, Minister Marsudi hoped that Singapore would import agricultural products, especially fruits and vegetables, from Indonesia.
"We want to promote our agriculture products, especially fruits and vegetables, so that Singapore will not import from distant countries, which it has done until now," she stated.
Marsudi affirmed that the government would establish a one-stop permission service to facilitate investors in conducting their businesses in Indonesia. After the bilateral meeting with Minister Shanmugam, Retno Marsudi also paid a courtesy visit to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the State Palace.
"The government of Singapore welcomes our plan to increase bilateral cooperation and harbors high optimism related to business and investment in Indonesia under President Jokowi's administration," she affirmed.
Singapore is also the biggest foreign direct investor (FDI) in Indonesia, with total FDI valued at 4.7 billion USD in 2013. Besides economic cooperation, the Indonesian and Singaporean foreign affairs ministers also discussed regional security issues by encouraging the ASEAN's centralized agreement.
"Singapore also supports the Indonesian leadership in the ASEAN to address security issues. As a matter of fact, Indonesia is the largest country in the region," Retno added.
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