Indonesia plans to export more metal products to Turkey

By Nazarudin Latief

JAKARTA, (AA) – A senior Indonesian government official said on Friday that the country intended to export more metals and metal products to Turkey to boost trade between the two countries.

"Turkey is an industrial country which complements very well that of Indonesia, so we want our mining products to enter the Turkish market. The price is also good," Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said in a virtual conference.

The country, he said, is also working to get Turkey to buy more palm oil and palm oil products this year.

Besides Turkey, China, the United Arab Emirates, and the Philippines are the target countries for this year's export of Indonesian metals and metal products, Lutfi said.

Indonesia last year targeted $1.1 billion in exports to Turkey, but $1.04 billion, or 88.6%, was realized. The target has been raised by 6.45% this year, according to the Ministry of Trade.

Indonesia's leading export products to Turkey include crude palm oil (CPO), textile fibers, steel sheets, and yarn.

Last year, Indonesia saw a trade surplus of $21.7 billion due to a significant drop in imports.

The US was the country with the highest trade surplus in 2020 with $11.3 billion, followed by India with $6.4 billion and the Philippines with $5.2 billion.

Lutfi emphasized that Indonesia will slowly but gradually be transformed into a country that also produces and exports high-tech industrial and industrial products, not only raw and semi-finished goods.

Last year, the country’s 10 main non-oil and gas exports contributed 59.8% to the economy, three of them were items that was converted into manufacturing and high-tech industrial goods, including steel, motorized vehicles, and their spare parts, and jewelry.

Indonesia is the second-largest country in the world to manufacture these commodities after China, with more than 70% of the country's steel being shipped to China.

In 2020, steel ranked 3rd in Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports with a contribution of 7% or $10.85 billion, while motorized vehicle products and their spare parts ranked 6th with $6.6 billion or 4.3%.

"Although there has been a decline in the automotive sector due to the sluggish global economic conditions affected by COVID-19, the potential for exports of motor vehicles and their spare parts are still very large," said Lutfi.

Regarding the Indonesia-Turkey Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA), the minister said it is scheduled to conclude this year. Currently, the agreement has reached the inter-sessional meeting stage which was held in June 2020.

"The progress of IT CEPA negotiations have been hampered by COVID-19 pandemic. It [Turkey] is busy fighting the pandemic, so are we,” added Lutfi.

*Writing by Rhany Chairunissa Rufinaldo from Anadolu Agency's Indonesian language services in Jakarta