Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia's exports in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2019 were valued at 95 billion U.S. dollars or 61.65 percent of Indonesia's total exports worldwide.

Meanwhile, investment from RCEP in the same year reached 19 billion U.S. dollars, or 66.59 percent of the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worldwide.

Those numbers are indicators that confirm Indonesia's strategic position in RCEP, according to Director General of Resilience, Territory and International Industrial Access at the Indonesian Ministry of Industry, Dody Widodo, in a webinar with a theme ‘Challenges for the Industrial Sectors in Implementing the RCEP Agreement on Tuesday (Oct 20).

"Currently, what we need to boost industrial product exports to improve trade performance, so that we will not have a trade balance deficit. That way, Indonesia can catch up with other ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore," he explained.

"We need to increase our independence in meeting raw materials, improving production processes and proper packaging, as well as strengthening logistics, branding and others," Dody said.

"We should also continue to promote Domestic Products Use program, as well as propose regulations and incentives according to industry players’ needs," he said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window