Indonesia promotes trade with Vietnam

Representatives of Vietnamese enterprises were seeking to co-operate with Indonesian firms at the conference

At the conference on promoting palm oil and paper industrial cooperation and investment ties between Vietnam and Indonesia in Hanoi on July 26, Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi told VIR that he expected the two countries’ bilateral trade turnover to raise to about $7.5 billion this year and $10 billion next year, from the $5.6 billion last year.

In order to reach these targets, the embassy is now promoting two-way co-operation in the palm oil and paper industries, among many others.

According to the embassy, the 12 largest palm oil exporters and 14 largest paper exporters of Indonesia are planning to expand their export markets to Vietnam and are looking to establish joint ventures with local partners for direct production in Vietnam.

Some 14 Vietnamese firms are also interested in co-operating with Indonesian peers.

“Vietnam considers Indonesia as a great paper exporter, with annual exports of about one million tonnes, ten-fold of Vietnamese paper exports,” To Toan, deputy manager of the Import and Export Department of Vietnam Paper Company, told VIR at the conference, where he, on behalf of his company, sought to meet Indonesian partners to discuss co-operation opportunities.

“We hope that Indonesian firms can provide us with experience and especially opportunities to transfer paper production technologies,” Toan said.

Paper was the third largest commodity in terms of value exported from Indonesia to Vietnam, with a total value of $181 million. The fourth place was the animal, vegetable fat, and oil products segment, including palm oil, with a total value of $161 million.

In 2016, Indonesia was the second largest exporter of animal and vegetable oil to Vietnam and the third largest exporter for paper, according to the embassy.

Last year, Indonesia earned $18.6 billion from exporting 27 million tonnes of palm oil, which is used for processing not only cooking oil products, but also cosmetics.

This made Indonesia the world’s top exporter of palm oil with 36 million tonnes, or 62 per cent of the total world exports of 56 million tonnes.