"The negotiation team will sit together with their Australian counterpart. The team has to finalize discussion by the end of this month," the minister said after a Cabinet meeting on the economic partnership at the Vice Presidential Office in Jakarta over the weekend.

The minister did not reveal the exact date and place of the negotiations.

The negotiations were originally planned to conclude in November 2017, but the countries had failed to reach an agreement on a number of issues.

Enggartiasto said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had targeted to finalize the unsolved issues, particularly in regard to taxes, in August and planned to ink the agreement in October or in November.

Indonesian-Australian trade reached US$8.46 billion in 2016, with $3.19 billion in Australian exports to Indonesia and $5.26 billion in Indonesian exports to Australia.

Enggartiasto said the government would soon start trade talks with Morocco and Kenya, particularly in trying to agree on a preferential trade agreement (PTA).

"With African countries, the agreement is a PTA, which should be completed quicker as a PTA is not as complicated as an FTA [ free trade agreement] ," he said.

Indonesia will also open talks on FTAs with Egypt and Turkey. (bbn)

Popular

What Indonesia can learn from the Iran–Israel war

Analysis: Indonesia’s competitiveness ranking falls amid weakening fundamentals

US, Colombia recall top diplomats as rift deepens