Indonesia Enhances Economic Co-operation with Norway and Switzerland

April 2023

The Indonesian and Norwegian governments have agreed to strengthen economic cooperation by focusing on implementing digital trade and addressing Indonesia’s halal certification standards, among other topics. Both countries have agreed to cooperate on the 2018 Indonesia-European Free Trade Association Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Indonesia-EFTA CEPA). In addition, the Norwegian government expressed its willingness to invest in Indonesia’s digital transformation.

Indonesia’s halal certification standards were also discussed, which could impact Norwegian exports to the country. Indonesia is undertaking policy reform, including revisions to the halal certification procedure, to enhance cooperation in this area. Free trade agreements (FTA) between Indonesia and other parties, palm oil concerns, and carbon trade, particularly in the agriculture and marine sectors, were also discussed in the meeting.

The Indonesian Trade Ministry and the Swiss government have also signed an MoU for trade development cooperation, aimed at promoting the export of value-added Indonesian products to the European market. The MoU covers capacity building, training, and knowledge transfer to strengthen the directorate general in providing export promotion information services to business actors. The Swiss Import Promotion Program (SIPPO) will be the implementing agency for the MoU, with the participation of multiple stakeholders.

The cooperation focuses on the Ministry of Trade for processed wood/technical wood products, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs for natural ingredients, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries for marine value-added products, and the Indonesian Essential Oil Council for essential oils. Total trade between Indonesia and Switzerland reached USD 2.75 billion in 2022, an increase of 38% from the previous year, after the implementation of the Indonesia-EFTA Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in November 2021, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS).

These agreements demonstrate Indonesia’s commitment to expanding economic cooperation with international partners and promoting sustainable development. The collaboration with Norway and Switzerland will help Indonesia achieve its goals for digital transformation and value-added exports, while also addressing issues such as halal certification and carbon trade.

(Source: ScandAsia; VOI News)

Our Services

Orissa International provides consulting services to companies that want to develop a market entry strategy for Southeast Asia or implement their business expansion into the region. We have very strong domain knowledge of markets and industry sectors, and a business network of over 16,000 distributors, resellers, and system integrators, built through advising and guiding more than 5,000 companies with their market expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines over the last 25 years.