Economic relations between Indonesia and Hong Kong are getting closer. It was noted, despite being in a pandemic situation, trade and export relations between Indonesia and Hong Kong continued to improve.
This was confirmed by the Indonesian Ambassador to China, Djauhari Oratmangun. He said that in general economic relations between Indonesia and China, including Hong Kong, had improved amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our trade relationship with China, according to data from the Chinese Customs, last year reached US$124 billion, up 50 percent compared to the previous year. We hope that it will continue to grow,” he said in a seminar held by the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council in collaboration with the Hong Kong Indonesian Business Association, Friday (25/3/2022).
He explained that the business relationship between Indonesia, China, and Hong Kong was very encouraging. Moreover, exports to China rose above 70 percent while investment from China was US$3.8 billion. If you add Hong Kong, it is the second largest.
Oratmangun added, in 2021, trade volume with Hong Kong reached more than US$5 billion, an increase of 25% from the previous year.
Furthermore, exports from Indonesia to Hong Kong reached US$2.155 billion, an increase of 25%, and imports from Hong Kong amounted to US$ 1.79 billion.
These figures show a trade surplus with Hong Kong and China as a whole.
This year alone, the realization of investment in Indonesia from Hong Kong has reached US$3.5 billion. In 2020, the realization reached US$2.985 billion and in 2021 the realization of investment from Hong Kong reached US$4.6 billion.
“The investment realization from Hong Kong is bigger than China. We know that investment from China has indeed entered through several places, one of which is Hong Kong. So the total realization of investment from China and Hong Kong in Indonesia is already above US$ 8 billion,” he added.
Furthermore, he also explained that in the future Indonesia would be more focused on investment in priority areas of development, namely in the health industry. The reason for choosing the health industry is because China and Hong Kong have many resources that can help Indonesia.
This is evidenced by the distribution of Sinovac vaccines which started last year as well as for biotechnology and hospital programs.
He added that the second aspect of cooperation between Indonesia – China – Hong Kong, “Our second priority will be to concentrate on the green economy, new and renewable energy. That is what we are developing and the third is in the field of the digital economy, “
This third aspect, according to him, attracts investment from China and Hong Kong because they want to collaborate with digital economy players in the country.
Indonesia is considered to contain great potential in this field because in 2021 Indonesia’s e-commerce transactions will already be above US$50 billion and in 2025 it is predicted to reach US$100 billion.
“This can accelerate the development of our economists. The digital economy’s contribution to GDP is only 3 percent here. In China, it is 32 percent. I’m sure Hong Kong is not much different either,” he concluded.
