Indonesia, Vietnam Cooperation to BeSignificantly Enhanced in 2010

The relationship is becoming stronger under ASEAN cooperation as both countries support for each other at issues in other regional and international bodies. Indonesia supports Vietnam during its candidacy as non permanent seat of UN Security Council 2008 – 2009. This year, Vietnam is the chairman of the ASEAN and Indonesia stated its support to bring the ASEAN meetings in Vietnam a success including to implement the genuine theme of the ASEAN meeting this year: “Towards the ASEAN Community; from Vision to Action”. In the technical cooperation, Indonesia – Vietnam relations is bound by the Declaration on the Framework of Friendly and Comprehensive Partnership Entering the 21^st Century.

 

The Consulate General together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) conducted the seminar on fisheries cooperation in 2009 agreed to enhance fisheries cooperation between the two countries. Fish catching by Vietnam’s vessels will utilized for the benefit of the two countries.

 

The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia has planned to conduct a market survey, business matchmaking and bring several business delegations of both countries in all sectors to visit and learn the potential cooperation that can be initiated or further developed, so that in 2010 the economic and socio culture of Indonesia and Vietnam cooperation will be significantly enhanced.

In 2010, Indonesian investor are still looking at its domestic market as promising, especially in sectors like mining, forestry, service industry, stock market, and property. However, as both countries are concerned, there are many sectors of cooperation to be explored. Indonesia and Vietnam have big population in the region (with 240 million or number one in the region and 87 million respectively), which means a huge market for both consumer products. On the other hand, we are in the situation that our economic products are similar, such as in the field of agricultural commodity and energy.

 

However, these similarities should not be regarded as an obstacle in our cooperation but as the opportunity where both stakeholders can fulfill each other in with their competitive advantages. One example for this situation is the cooperation in the fisheries field. Indonesia’s fishery potentials are 30 times bigger than Vietnam’s and are open for investment cooperation in catching fish by Vietnam business. We also have fisheries issues waiting to be furthered discussed by our stakeholders to meet the standard of entering EU market, after the implementation of European Union illegal, unreported and unregulated (EU IUU) fishing. The other sectors where both countries have ability to advance its business are property, services, agriculture, food industries and energy. We also invite Vietnam investor to invest in forestry sector; including rubber plantation and CPO which Indonesia has large plantation area and skilled human resources. Vietnam and Indonesia can also learn each other on their economic development, share best practices on their competitiveness including in promoting their human resources.

 

I appreciate the efforts made by the Government of Vietnam to make a better situation for investment procedure. However, as I received some inputs from Indonesian investors that the difficulties met in doing business are the problem of transferring money out of Vietnam, tax regulation, and certifying selling products.