Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen visited Indonesia
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland Anne-Mari Virolainen made an export promotion visit to Jakarta, Indonesia on 8-10 October 2018. She was returning the visit to Finland by the Indonesian Minister of Energy Ignasius Jonan in May 2018. A Business Delegation assembled by Business Finland, including energy, bioeconomy, mining, and environmental technology companies, participated in the visit. The purpose of the visit was to promote the exports of Finnish companies, to deepen already established cooperation relations and to open doors for new partnerships.
On Monday, the first official day of the visit, Minister Virolainen met with Indonesian Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita, Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto and the Director General of the Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Dwikorita Karnawati. Minister Virolainen also took part in a networking lunch for women leaders hosted by Vice President of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Shinta Widjaja Kamdani. On Tuesday, Minister Virolainen met with Minister of Energy Ignasius Jonan, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya and the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan. On Wednesday, Minister Virolainen met with Minister of Social Affairs Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmitan.
On Monday, Finnish Ambassador-designate Jari Sinkari hosted a dinner reception where Finnish companies had the opportunity to discuss informally with representatives from Indonesian companies and strengthen their cooperation. In her opening speech for the evening Minister Virolainen said Indonesia is a high priority country for Finnish Government and Finnish companies. "We want to do much more with you. The Finnish economy is very compatible to serve resource-intensive economies like Indonesia," Minister Virolainen said. In addition Minister Virolainen stressed that thanks to new transport links, travel distance is not an obstacle for cooperation.
During the ministerial visit, a new Finnish export credit instrument Public Sector Investment Facility was presented in the discussions. Also, an additional boost was given to export and investment projects of Finnish companies in Indonesia. Digital economy was identified as a new field of cooperation, where discussions will be continued at the expert level. Finnish technology was also introduced to new potential partners, and a market access issue experienced by a Finnish company was solved.
Finnish companies participating in the visit were BMH Technology, Finnvera, Fortum, Outotec, Raumaster, SCS Consulting, Valmet and Wärtsilä.
On Thursday, Minister Virolainen continued from Jakarta to Bali, where she met with the Minister of State Owned Enterprises of Rini Soemarno and Minister of National Development Planning Bambang Brodjonegoro. From 11 to 13 October Minister Virolainen attended the World Bank Group Annual Meeting and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Joint Development Committee meeting. In addition to the official program, Minister Anne-Mari Virolainen hosted a meeting on human rights with Norwegian Minister of Development Nikolai Astrup.
Indonesia is currently Finland's largest economic partner in Southeast Asia. Last year Finland's exports to Indonesia increased by 63 % and import by 33 %, and trade volume was over 400 million euros. Indonesian economy is currently growing at about five percent per year, and the number of consumers is expected to more than double by 2030. Indonesia offers many opportunities for Finnish companies, especially in energy sector, infrastructure development and in the fields of bio and circular economies. Also, the new industrial digitization program launched by Indonesian government creates interesting business opportunities.