I

ndonesia needs to speed up its economic integration and connectivity to grasp market opportunities in China following the opening of the ASEAN Products Exhibition Center in Yiwu, China, an official said on Wednesday.

The Beijing-based ASEAN-China Center (ACC)'€™s director for education, culture and tourism division, Tri Purnajaya, said China considered ASEAN important as a net contributor to regional economic growth, with Indonesia as the '€œbig brother'€, and that the exhibition center at Yiwu International Trade City in Zhejiang province was a platform to enter China market.

'€œThe problems [that hamper] Indonesia'€™s national economy in grabbing global trade opportunity have to do with poor economic integration and connectivity,'€ said Tri at a seminar held by the Indonesian Christian University'€™s Center for Security and Foreign Affairs Studies in Jakarta. The career diplomat said that the poor state of national economic connectivity had contributed to high production costs, the factor that had hampered Indonesia as a player in the global economy.

ACC was established in 2011 to mark the 20th anniversary of ASEAN-China relationships, with the aim of promoting trade, tourism, educational and cultural activities in the region. ACC also facilitated the establishment of the ASEAN center for the grouping'€™s 10 member countries in Yiwu.

The opening of the center last December was an example of the increasing significant economic role of ASEAN, a region populated by 600 million, with 200 million in Indonesia alone.

Indonesia-China bilateral trade tripled within three years, from US$22 million in 2010 to $66 million in 2012. Trade value between ASEAN and China is set to reach US$1 trillion in 2020, with an investment target of $150 billion. In 2013, two-way trade was $440 billion.

'€œIt is hoped that Yiwu will have a multiplier effect,'€ said Tri, adding that the platform aimed to '€œtest the waters'€ of the Chinese market. There were two Indonesian booths showcasing handicrafts at the ASEAN center that covered a 5,000 square-meter platform in Yiwu.

'€œWe need to be closer to China,'€ Tri argued, citing an empirical analysis forecast that said China would become the biggest world economy in 2030, with Indonesia as the 7th.

Being the only member of the G-20 group of major economies, Indonesia is considered the '€œbig brother'€ in ASEAN, but in terms of Chinese investment, which totaled $2.02 billion in 2012, Indonesia was still behind Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

According to data from the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing, in 2012, China'€™s investment in ASEAN amounted to $4.42 billion, a 52 percent increase from a year before, with Singapore, Cambodia and Myanmar as the main targets of the investment.

The same condition was seen in the tourism sector. Last year, (mainland) Chinese tourists to Thailand reached 3.6 million, to Cambodia 2.7 million, while to Indonesia only some 800,000. The number of Chinese tourists is projected to reach more than 100 million in 2015.

In education, ASEAN and China have set a program dubbed '€œDouble the 100,000 student exchange'€ by 2020. At present, there are 110,000 Chinese students in ASEAN countries and 70,000 ASEAN students in China.

According to Tri, Indonesia has been successful in terms of diplomacy and foreign policy, exemplifying Indonesia'€™s role in the success of WTO and APEC meetings in Bali last year. But the challenge is there '€œto convert political gains into economic gains'€, he said.