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s market liberalization is inevitable in today'€™s interconnected world, the government will be forced to adopt it and look after the domestic market while developing the industry at home, a government'€™s top official said.

Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said market liberalization had become a global trend and, therefore, Indonesia needed to open its market as well.

'€œWe have to '€˜look after'€™ our domestic market '€” not protect it. At the same time, the government needs to prepare a framework, an action plan and swift execution intelligently,'€ Lutfi said after the second Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Participating Countries'€™ Ministerial Meeting at the Myanmar International Convention Center on Wednesday.

The RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement that brings together the 10 member states of ASEAN and the six participating partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

Negotiations on the partnership began during the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia in November 2012. Till now, however, various issues remain on the table for further discussion. Economic ministers continued negotiations this week at the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) Meeting in Naypyidaw, Myanmar.

'€œWe are still working on the trade in goods issues. We agreed to talk about trade in services in December and will discuss investment and other related matters later,'€ Lutfi said.

Due to the complexity of the issue and the fact that India did not send its economic minister to the meeting this week, the participating ministers agreed to set their liberalization level target only at '€œmedium'€.

Citing examples from the series of negotiations, Lutfi said some countries fully supported market liberalization while others opposed it. According to him, countries that supported global interconnection normally had bigger opportunities to experience robust economic growth.

However, market liberalization should be equipped with measures to ensure the growth of domestic
industry, he said.

'€œAs a country, we cannot merely protect our market,'€ said Lutfi, a former head of the Investment Coordinating Board [BKPM] and Indonesian Ambassador to Japan.

The minister said the government, in particular the incoming Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo administration, would have to take swift action as soon as it came to power by developing infrastructure to support industrial development in the country.

One outstanding issue that will have a big impact on the development of the domestic industry is the energy issue.

'€œHow can we develop the industry if there are frequent power outages,'€ he said. Aside from developing infrastructure to support the domestic industry, the government needs to also provide incentives '€”tax cuts and facilitation '€” to attract investors, a common practice in business diplomacy.

'€œWe can'€™t just sign an agreement or issue policies without carrying out concrete actions to support the industry at home,'€ Lutfi said, adding that he planned to meet with ministers to discuss the issue, specifically Industry Minister MS Hidayat, Agriculture Minister Suswono and Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu.

'€œWe need to have working plans for five, 10, 15 and 20 years. We will discuss it soon. We must not remain idle again and again,'€ he said.

With the industry minister, Lutfi will discuss issues related to industrial development and the potential sectors that have the capacity to supply the regional market.