The total value of Taiwan's investment in Indonesia is currently ranked in the top-five foreign investments in Indonesia, and has created around 1 million jobs for the people in this archipelagic country.

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The total value of Taiwan's investment in Indonesia is currently ranked in the top-five foreign investments in Indonesia, and has created around 1 million jobs for the people in this archipelagic country.

The Head of the Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO), John Chen, made the remarks at the Celebration of Taiwan’s 113th National Day, which was held in Jakarta, on Tuesday evening (Oct. 8).

The achievement of Taiwan's investment value in Indonesia is the success of the implementation of the 'New Southbound Policy' for eight years, in the fields of economy and trade.

The TETO Chief further stated that in the first half of this year, the total trade volume between Taiwan and the 18 countries covered by the New Southbound Policy reached 83.5 billion U.S. dollars, or an annual growth rate of 12.43 percent, while exports were valued at 50.2 billion U.S. dollars.

“This is the highest record for the same period in previous years,” Ambassador Chen said.

In the future, Taiwan’s investment is expected to drive the momentum of regional cooperation with the ‘Digital New Southbound’ policy, which integrates Taiwanese entrepreneurs, provides management technology support, creates service innovations and system integration, to deepen technological ties with Southeast Asian countries.

Furthermore, in the field of employment, bilateral relations between Taiwan and Indonesia have become closer in the past year. “Indonesia is the largest source of migrant workers in Taiwan and the second largest single source of students in Taiwan,” he noted.

Currently, he explained, there are around 400,000 Indonesian citizens living, working and studying in various regions in Taiwan. “Taiwan is honored to be a second home for our friends from Indonesia, and we would like to thank the new Indonesian residents for their dedication and efforts in Taiwan,” John Chen added.

The TETO chief also emphasized that this year is an important milestone for Taiwan and Indonesia.

“Taiwan successfully completed its 8th direct presidential and vice presidential election, laying the foundation for democracy. Constitutional governance is innovative again, and its strong democratic resilience has been highly recognized by the international community,” he said.

According to him, Indonesia also successfully elected a new president in a peaceful and stable manner. “The new governments of the two countries will achieve better substantive cooperation results based on the strong interactions that have existed before,” he pointed out.

Throughout its 113-year national history, Taiwan has continuously strived to join international organizations, and make contributions to the world community in various ways, while deepening global partnerships, and using its strength and good leadership. With these efforts, Taiwan has received increasing supports from the international community.

John Chen also mentioned that recently, Taiwan's like-minded partner countries, such as the United States, Australia, and the European Parliament, have firmly supported Taiwan, and jointly opposed China's deliberate distortion of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, which is incorrectly linked to the 'one China principle'.

"The unity of democratic countries is the main force to resist China's expansion. The Taiwanese government thanks all parties for their support for Taiwan and for their efforts in maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait," he said.

Ambassador Chen emphasized that Taiwan will uphold the values ​​of freedom and democracy, and continue to deepen partnerships with Indonesia and countries with similar ideals, and work together to realize democracy, peace, and prosperity.

Under the theme 'New Democratic, Peaceful and Prosperous Taiwan', the National Day reception, also known as 'The Double Tenth Day', was attended by government officials, legislators, diplomats, members of the Chinese community, Taiwanese businessmen, scholars and media personnel, totaling more than 800 people.

Officials from the embassies of Guatemala, Ukraine, Hungary, the United Arab Emirates, Bosnia, Italy, Finland, Japan, the European Union, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Jordan and Latvia also attended the celebration.

Reporting by Indonesia Window