'We urge the Indonesian government not to be hasty in promoting and agreeing to APEC's connectivity agenda,' said IGJ executive director, M.Riza Damanik, in Jakarta on Monday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to Riza, APEC's connectivity agenda has the potential to expedite the influx of foreign-manufactured products into Indonesia.

He said the government should be able to take more focused measures in protecting the sustainability of the national economy. Such protection could be carried out by limiting the involvement of foreign investment in any activities that could hamper the country's productive economy.

Riza felt that the APEC ministerial meeting which took place from April 7 to 21 had the potential to worsen the country's negative balance of trade.

'The APEC economic zone's connectivity framework aims only to expand trade liberalization in the Asia Pacific,' he said.

Riza said that by agreeing to the ASEAN economic integration agenda, for example, Indonesia's balance of trade would deteriorate. In the beginning of 2013, Indonesia suffered a trade deficit worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.

An official previously stated that Indonesia would issue its first connectivity framework proposal for Asia Pacific countries that were joining the APEC.

'In the next 40 days, Indonesia will issue the first connectivity framework proposal which will synergize three connectivity aspects among countries, namely infrastructure, institutional and people-to-people,' said head of APEC Senior Officers Meeting (SOM), Yuri O.Thamrin, in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday. (asw/ebf)

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