Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru will be leading a trade delegation to Indonesia in March this year.
The minister says Papua New Guinea (PNG) needs to work on developing a very strong, deep, and robust relationship with Indonesia.
“We have wasted the last 50 years. Indonesia is the country we should have focused on building a trade and investment relationship and a stronger political and economic cooperation with. We now have to take full advantage of the leadership provided by our Prime Minister, James Marape who visited Indonesia in 2022 and the recent visit by Indonesian President, Joko Widodo last year and his offer of aid and other support to our country,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru stated, “Indonesia is home to more than 260 million people and with GDP of about US$1 trillion, it is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and the 16th largest in the world. Indonesia’s economy has accelerated over the past 10 years, with GDP growth averaging more than 5.7 per cent a year. Their major industrial sectors include petroleum and natural gas, textiles and apparel, mining, footwear, plywood, rubber, and chemical fertilizers. Indonesia has so many multibillion and multimillion local companies in all sectors of their economy and they have very sound policies that have really contributed to the growth of their economy. They have all their resources including the gold, copper, nickel, and natural resources processed locally. They do not allow their resources to leave their county raw or semi-processed; those who do are charged very hefty export taxes.”
"The work to really deepen our relationship with Indonesia will start by me leading a delegation to Indonesia to meet their new government and their new Trade Minister, to build a person-to-person relationship and business-to-business relationship, visit their industries, meet some potential investors, and to learn from their policies in mining, petroleum, downstream processing, and policies on trade and industry.
Minister Maru aims to firmly establish the PNG-Indonesia Business Council in both countries and have the first ever Papua New Guinea Trade and Investment Conference hosted in Indonesia this year. Furthermore, the minister plans to replicate in PNG certain policies that have proven successful in Indonesia to transform PNG’s economy.
“We will also invite Indonesia to host a Trade Fair in Papua New Guinea. We want to also start the process towards building a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries. We are happy that we have air services now but we need to focus on a very good shipping services between our two countries. I am very keen for all these to happen.”
“For the last 50 years our focus has been on border and security talks every year. These have not led to improvement of our border facilities, creation of jobs, or significant export between our two countries. We cannot keep doing business the same way and expect a different outcome. We have wasted the last 50 years and it is time Papua New Guinea need to develop a very strong, deep, and robust relationship with Indonesia. Indonesia is a huge market opportunity for us. We have a lot of goods to export to Indonesia and we can also be a big market for their goods and services,” Minister Maru added.