Speaking at the Indonesia Briefing 2018 forum in London, UK, recently, Indonesian Ambassador to the UK Rizal Sukma revealed his government’s ambitious objective of boosting the value of bilateral trade with the UK from about US$2.5 billion annually to between $5 billion and $7 billion.

The UK is Indonesia’s fourth largest trade partner in Europe.

“The Indonesia Briefing is part of the efforts to monitor the interesting progress in Britain during the Brexit process. For Indonesia, it is an opportunity to strengthen bilateral ties,” he said as quoted by a press statement issued by the Indonesian Embassy in London on Monday.

Indonesia Briefing 2018 was jointly organized by the Indonesian Embassy to the UK, Bank Indonesia (BI), the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) and the Trade Ministry. The forum was aimed at updating British businesspeople and other relevant parties about developments in Indonesia’s economy, business and politics.

Speakers at the event included Richard Graham, UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s special envoy for trade to Indonesia and the ASEAN Economic Community, Rosmaya Hadi, BI deputy governor, Sarah Hewin, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank, Nezar Patria, chief editor of The Jakarta Post, and Chris Wren, executive director of Britcham Indonesia.

Hewin, who has been closely observing the development of the Asian market, underlined Indonesia’s stable economic growth, achieved thanks to the solid cooperation between BI and the Indonesian government to provide a proper response to global pressures.

However, she stressed the need for Indonesia to improve its competitiveness, particularly in the renewable energy, automation and digitalization sectors. She said the country should also improve its human resources so that it would be able to move forward into high value-added industries.

Graham stressed the importance for UK businesses to explore business opportunities in Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia. He revealed a number of business opportunities that could be pursued in Indonesia, including in financial cooperation, financial technology (fintech), infrastructure, the digital economy and renewable energy.

With $211 million recorded in realized direct investment as of the third quarter this year, the UK is the second largest European country investing in Indonesia — the Netherlands is first.

Meanwhile, Rosmaya assured British investors about the solid Indonesian economic growth amid global economic uncertainty. “Bank Indonesia is trying to respond to the global economic fluctuations by introducing mixed policies, covering the monetary, macroprudential and payment systems,” he said.

In the briefing about the political situation in Indonesia, Nezar said that since 2014 Indonesia has seen a new populist phenomenon ahead of political events with social media becoming an important influencer in election campaigns.

He, however, said he believed that the presidential and legislative election next April would not have any negative impact on the country’s economy, including its projected growth, or on the country’s other agenda items, like the fight against terrorism.

Through the 2019 state budget the government is aiming for the economy to expand by 5.3 percent, slightly lower than this year’s target of 5.4 percent.

The country’s economy expanded by 5.17 percent year-on-year (yoy) during the third quarter of 2018, according to Statistics Indonesia data, higher than the 5.06 percent yoy recorded in the same period last year.

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