Indonesia looks to boost e-commerce with Pakistan
A PTA report says that the ministry of commerce has formulated an ‘e-commerce policy board’ to monitor progress. PHOTO: FILE
Adam Mulawarman Tugio, Indonesia’s ambassador to Pakistan, on Sunday said that Indonesia has set a $50 billion e-commerce trade target by 2025 to connect with the biggest sector of global trade.
“There are vast opportunities in e-commerce trade between Pakistan and Indonesia, which will increase bilateral trade and investment opportunities on both sides,” Adam Mulawarman Tugio told APP here.
The envoy noted that both Pakistan and Indonesia have large youth populations that can make their mark in the global e-commerce trade and create vast employment opportunities in both countries.
He said that global retail e-commerce sales in 2020 stood at $4.28 trillion, which is expected to reach $5.4 trillion by 2022.
“Pakistan and Indonesia can be linked with e-commerce trade to increase bilateral trade as well as connect both sides’ youth in business and trade,” he emphasised, adding that with such connections, young people from both the countries and people can benefit from each other’s experiences and skills to promote economic and cultural integration.
He said that e-commerce integration in both countries could also help in promoting tourism in the two nations and strengthen the people-to-people ties.
Read: Taliban rule leads to lower price of Afghan fruits in Pakistan
In response to a question, Tugio explained that Indonesia had made investments in Palm oil in Karachi, which would enhance economic cooperation between the two countries, adding that in the near future while taking interest in investing in Faisalabad, steps would be taken for this in the near future.
Responding to another question about Indonesia’s rapid economic growth and economic reforms, he said Indonesia was the first to work on Ease of Doing Business (EODB) and business facilitation, which encouraged foreign investors.
The ambassador said a number of achievements had been made following the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) targets and then there was the devolution of power in Indonesia for strengthening of the local body system, which led to a strong federation.
“Pakistan and Indonesia have strong prospects for the proposed bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which would help strengthen economic and trade ties between the two countries.”
Read More: Covid sparks e-commerce boom
The Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) already existed in both the countries which opened up the possibility of increasing bilateral trade, he added.
The ambassador said Indonesia had recently reduced tariffs for facilitating Pakistan in 20 trade items in the bilateral PTA review.
The ambassador said Indonesia had a strong role to play, adding, progress was being made to enhance economic and trade integration between Pakistan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Discussing the cultural and educational ties between the two countries, he elaborated 11% of scholarships were awarded to Pakistani students this year, which was 52% of developing countries. He said this year 60 Pakistani students went to Indonesian universities to study.