Trade cooperation between Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates is getting stronger. This was conveyed by the President and CEO of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah. Lootah said that the signing of the Indonesia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IUAE-CEPA) last year had removed barriers to trade in various goods and services between the two countries.
“This is expected to increase annual non-oil bilateral trade between our countries to US$10 billion (IDR 160 trillion) in the next five years,” said Lootah at the New Horizons: Doing Business with Indonesia event in South Jakarta, Monday (6/5/ 2024).
According to him, this agreement opens up attractive opportunities for the business community and both countries and confirms Indonesia’s position as a very important and strategic market for the United Arab Emirates and Dubai.
Lootah himself said that the market between Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates had been strong for several decades. He explained that during 2023, non-oil and gas bilateral trade between the two countries will reach US$3.5 billion (IDR 56 trillion) or achieve solid growth of 7.7% compared to the previous year.
As relations improve, in June 2023, Dubai International Chamber, launched a new international representative office in Jakarta with the aim of further strengthening bilateral trade and investment relations.
“Our team in Jakarta is happy to work with the Indonesian business world to support the growth of bilateral trade and investment, taking advantage of the CEPA agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia to achieve significant export and import expansion between the two markets,” he explained.
He said that the international representative office in Jakarta has several missions and focuses, namely building strong relationships with key public and private sector stakeholders, supporting Dubai-based companies that want to expand to Indonesia, and helping the Indonesian business world to enter the US market. Arab Emirates.
“By the end of 2023, a total of 99 Indonesian companies have registered as members of the Dubai Chamber, as many as 15 more companies joined us in the first quarter of this year, bringing the total to 114,” he explained.
“Reflecting the growing interest in Dubai among the Indonesian business community, we are confident that our office in Jakarta will continue to support and enhance the strategic bilateral trade and investment relationship between the two countries.”
Apart from that, the President and CEO of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, said that there was a possibility that companies from the United Arab Emirates would be interested in investing in Indonesia’s Archipelago Capital (IKN).
“As soon as investment opportunities are presented to us through investment promotion agencies in Indonesia, we will work with them (IKN) to introduce the private sector from the United Arab Emirates,” he said.
“Such opportunities are open to our private sector in Dubai, and we hope to encourage our companies to play a very important and important role in these investment opportunities,” he added.
May 6, 2024, CNBC Indonesia
(https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20240506153950-4-536119/bisnis-uea-ri-makin-mesra-dubai-bakal-investasi-di-ikn)