An Indonesian senior official has said that the year 2010 promises a new dawn for Indonesia as two Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that came into effect last week give the country's exports greater access to regional emerging markets regarded as the main engine of the global economic recovery, a local media reported on Wednesday.
Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said that regardless of mounting concerns and its feared negative impacts on some domestic manufacturers, the reality of wider market should be enough to bring about a recovery in Indonesia's exports.
She said that the Indonesian government had developed ways to make optimal use of these export markets, which are now wide-open, thanks to trade liberalization.
The full implementation of ASEAN-China and ASEAN-6 FTAs took into effect on Jan. 1 and opened the door to the export and import of almost all goods across the countries' borders at zero tariffs.
Among those thought to directly benefit from greater market access to China are the exporters of 10 basic commodities that comprised of CPO and
its derivatives, coal, rubber and its derivative, copper, pulp, aluminum, nickel, CD-ROMs, octanol and iron ore.
Mari dismissed on Tuesday assumptions developed in the country that the FTA with China will only benefit commodities.
"All products have the potential to penetrate China's market, and not just those that are resource-based. Manufactured products such as glass and branded garments from Indonesia are also big in China,"the minister was quoted by the Jakarta Post daily as saying.
"Trade agreements with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries started since 1992 and with China since 2004. Many sectors have
reaped benefits from these FTAs and we saw that our CPO and cacao exports to China have risen,"Mari said.
She called on many parties in the country to consider how to promote trade relations with China that would help improve the competitiveness of Indonesia's manufacturing industries.
Mari said that Indonesia has been importing raw materials from China to be processed in the country for domestic market and for export to many foreign countries.
She, however, acknowledged there were still problems with regard to several industries that had claimed that the FTA with China would hurt their national market. But she maintained that the government had made "a quick response" by addressing these problems and protecting the domestic market.
The protection efforts would include tightening controls on goods and services to meet national standards of quality, protection against unfair trade and increase promotion of Indonesian-made products.
Indonesia expects to exports to be on growth trajectory this year, growing by 5.1 percent. Exports of non-oil and gas products are expected to grow by up to 7.5 percent, recovering from a 12 percent slump a year earlier.