Good News for Indonesia comes from Switzerland, although the global economic situation has not yet recovered due to the impact of the pandemic, Indonesia persisted and managed to record a trade surplus with Switzerland. Indonesia's trade performance strengthened and showed a surplus in May 2021, after declining in the previous months this year.
According to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration/FCA, the total value of Indonesia's exports to Switzerland in the January-May 2021 period is USD 782 million. Meanwhile, the value of Indonesia's imports from Switzerland is USD 159 million USD. Thus, Indonesia-Switzerland trade reached a surplus for Indonesia of USD 623 million during the first 5 months of 2021.
“This is good news, although world trade tends to decline, Indonesia can still maintain a trade surplus with Switzerland. We hope that in the future the value of Indonesia's trade surplus to Switzerland will remain," said the Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechstentein, Prof. Muliaman Hadad, Ph.D.
The positive developments in the trade sector are expected to be the main capital in efforts to recover the economy for both countries. The momentum of the trade surplus recorded by Indonesia against Switzerland is also expected to contribute to the economic recovery process and help build back better efforts.
There has been a shift in the order of Indonesia's main export commodities, especially in turbine engines and spare parts, furniture, and essential oils. When viewed from the value, all three experienced an increase in the January-May 2021 period compared to 2020 in the same period.
Indonesia - The EFTA CEPA (IE-CEPA) is an important agreement and it is hoped that through this agreement the opportunities will be more open for market access for trade in goods, services, and investment so that it will further encourage the strengthening of bilateral economic cooperation between Indonesia and Switzerland. Quoted from the EFTA page, Switzerland is the highest importing country from Indonesia compared to other EFTA countries, which is more than 65% of the total imports of EFTA countries from Indonesia.
The IE-CEPA does not only cover cooperation in trade in goods and services, but also investment. This year, for the first time, Switzerland is in the 5th Foreign Direct Investment list in Indonesia in first quarter of 2021.
Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia
Original published date: 29 June, 2021
Read full article here https://kemlu.go.id/bern/en/news/14217/indonesia-successfully-recorded-a-trade-surplus-with-switzerland
July 06, 2021
