"The Netherlands is an important partner of Indonesia for economic cooperation in the European market," Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stated here on Tuesday.
The bilateral meeting between foreign affairs ministers of Indonesia and the Netherlands took place at the Pancasila building at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia in Jakarta.
During the bilateral meeting, the two foreign ministers discussed efforts to improve partnership and economic cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands, one of which being through negotiation on comprehensive economic partnership between Indonesia and the European Union.
"Indonesia and the European Union are currently negotiating a comprehensive economic partnership, which will be completed soon," Foreign Minister Marsudi noted.
In 2018, Indonesia and the Netherlands enter the fifth year of the Joint Declaration on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
"The Netherlands is the second-largest trading partner in Europe for Indonesia," the Indonesian foreign minister stated.
The value of bilateral trade between Indonesia and the Netherlands reached US$5 billion in 2017.
"Several Indonesian export commodities enter Europe through Dutch ports. Indonesia`s largest export commodity to the Netherlands is palm oil," Foreign Minister Marsudi noted.
In addition, the Netherlands is the seventh-largest investor in Indonesia, with an investment value of $1.49 billion spread across 871 projects by 2017.
Related to the tourism sector, Minister Marsudi stated that the number of Dutch tourists visiting Indonesia had increased by 5.31 percent in 2017 to reach 250,844 people.
Meanwhile, Minister Blok expressed the Dutch government`s keenness to enhance bilateral cooperation with Indonesia.
"Indonesia as the 16th-largest economy in the world and is one of the major economic partners of the Netherlands, and the two countries are now working to improve economic cooperation," Blok stated.
Reporter: Yuni Arisandy
Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
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