Indonesia prioritises Zim’s economic boost

26 May, 2019 - 00:05 0 Views
Indonesia prioritises Zim’s economic boost

The Sunday Mail

Ambassador Dewa Juniarta Sastrawan

Despite the cordial relations existing between Zimbabwe and Indonesia, economic cooperation between the two countries has remained stunted.

Trade statistics paint a not so rosy image of Indonesia not anywhere near the top 20 of Zimbabwe’s trade partners.

 Our Reporter, Sharon Munjenjema, last week spoke to the new Indonesia ambassador Dewa Juniarta Sastrawan on his intentions to strengthen economic ties between his country and Zimbabwe. We publish responses of Ambassador Sastrawan in a conversation with The Sunday Mail.

My priority is definitely on how to increase the economic co-operation between Indonesia and Zimbabwe.

That is what I was tasked to do here, as new ambassador, and it is also Indonesia’s priority, in general, to all African countries.

 

 

I see that the commitment to restore the economy by the Zimbabwean Government is very strong and together with our mission here we can bring positive results.

In Indonesia, we experienced political unrest in 1998 and our economy plunged.

We relate to Zimbabwe’s situation because we know the difficulties of rebuilding an economy.

Of course, there are grand differences between our countries in population size. But the essence of how to restore an economy is the same everywhere.

We also had economic and political reforms after 1998 and from what I am seeing here, I can say Zimbabwe is doing great so far in terms of political and economic reforms.

 Economic synergies

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) were a key factor in the revitalisation of our economy, in Indonesia, and I see the SME sector here has great potential too.

Zimbabwe now also has a growing Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

There is need for synergies between the growing ICT sector and SME’s to develop larger industries.

In Indonesia, we have been in the same situation you are now; where SME’s were the strength of the informal sector.

Our people were producing basic goods in their backyards. This is something that can happen here too.

So, we would like to strengthen our capacity building and see what we can learn from each other in that sector.

 Trade

I observed that the trade between our two countries has been low for many years.

But I also realised that it is because of the geographical differences between the two countries. Zimbabwe is landlocked while Indonesia has many islands.

So, trade among our two countries has been indirect or through other countries.

Indonesian products are in Zimbabwe but they come through other countries like South Africa and Singapore that have access to the sea.

Our intention, going forward, is to increase direct trade between Indonesia and Zimbabwe as well as increase the value and volume of trade.

The two months that I have been here, I have met people who are doing business exchanges with Indonesia.

But they are not dealing with Indonesia direct and are using a third country.

As such, I have been informing the local businesses that we can work on a framework for direct trade.

I have requested to meet ZimTrade officials and I am yet to get a response so that we can discuss more on this.

On top of that, we have an Africa Indonesia forum.

The second edition will be held this August and we have extended an invitation to the Zimbabwean Government to send a delegation to attend this forum.

It is basically a continuation of the forum we launched last year in April to provide an investment platform for Indonesian Government and business people in Africa.

Zimbabwe’s potential

There are vast investment opportunities here. Together with the Vision 2030 and economic reforms Government is implementing, we see ourselves creating lasting economic ties.

I only have three years here and my strategy is to tap onto the low hanging fruits first, in the realisation that some things are doable during that three-year period and some are not.

I have to think strategically on what can be my medium and long term plans.

I have already met with some ministers and plan to meet more to see how we can work together.

When I met President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputies, we talked about how we can help revitalise the textile industry in this country with the understanding that we have a very active textile industry back at home.

When I also spoke to the Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister (Joel Biggie Matiza), we realised we can also help in the revitalisation of the railway system in Zimbabwe as well as civil aviation.

 Investment and cultural exchanges

My job here as ambassador is to assess what deal or sectors can be profitable for Indonesian private investors who would like to come and invest here.

I have spoken to a soap manufacturer who interested to come here and set shop.

We can also work on cultural and education diplomatic exchanges and this is something I hope we can achieve in a year’s time.

Then with time, we can move to bigger projects.

Like I said, it is very important for us to strengthen education and cultural co-operation.

We have a small budget on capacity building, but we can provide scholarships for Zimbabweans to learn in Indonesia and, at the same time, strengthen our people to people linkages.

From the cultural co-operation we hope that we can develop into tourism synergies going forward.

 

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