Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (R) meets with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Manila. (Photo: AFP/VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has heldbusiness dialogues and signed 12 memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Philippinepartners during President Joko Widodo’s visit to the Philippines.
Thesigning of these agreements aimed to strengthen bilateral cooperation andinformation exchange on trade barriers of the two countries, said ShintaWidjaja Kamdani, Kadin’s Deputy Chairwoman for International Relations.
Theinked MoUs involved property, pharmaceutical industry, infrastructure,manufacturing, tourism, distribution and consumer goods with a total investmentof about 300 million USD.
Business expansion in the Philippines wouldextend Indonesian products reach, especially ones from small- and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs). Successful Alfamart retailer stores of Indonesia are toopen 400 stores in the Philippines.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo began his state visit to thePhilippines from April 28 to attend the 30th ASEAN Summit and related meetingsin the capital city of Manila.
He met with host President Rodrigo Duterte and the two agreed toboost maritime security cooperation to put an end to piracy on the watersbetween the two countries.
Besides, the leaders also discussed other issues such as drugsfight, trade relations and people-to-people exchanges.
During his stay in the Philippines, the Indonesian Presidentattended the inauguration of a new shipping route linking eastern Indonesiawith south Philippines in the Davao region, which are separated by the Celebes Sea.
The new route is expected to cut short goodsdelivery time to 2.5 days and save 70 percent of the cost. It is part of the bilateral economic cooperation to raise the twocountries’ trade by 32 percent.
The Philippines is the 11th largest tradingpartner for Indonesia, with total bilateral trade valued at 3.51 billion USD in2015. In 2016, bilateral tradewas recorded at 4.9 billion USD, with an average growth of 6.3 percent made overthe past five years. - VNA
