May this serve as a chance to attract (more) investment as we have the (GSP) facilities. With the facilities, investors will be more interested to set up plants in Indonesia as we have been given the facilities to enter the US (market).
Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo has said the extension of the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) facility for Indonesia’s exports to the United States must be viewed as a chance to increase investment.



“I would like to remind that we have a chance to improve investment following the extension of the GSP facilities to enter the US (market),” he said white attending an online cabinet plenary meeting from the State Palace here on Monday.



The extension of the GSP status offers a chance to increase investment since Indonesia is the only Asian country enjoying the facility, he noted.



With the GSP facility in place, the President said, he expected Indonesia's exports to the US to jump.



"May this serve as a chance to attract (more) investment as we have the (GSP) facilities. With the facilities, investors will be more interested to set up plants in Indonesia as we have been given the facilities to enter the US (market)," he added.



The US government has officially extended the GSP facility for 700 Indonesian export products, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said during an online press conference on Sunday.



The US extended the GSP facility after the US Trade Representative (USTR) evaluated the facilities for recipient countries, including Indonesia, starting March, 2018, she informed.



GSP is a trade facility in the form of import duty exemptions that the US government has been granting unilaterally to developing countries since 1974. Indonesia became a beneficiary of the United States’ GSP for the first time in 1980.



"Indonesian export products receiving GSP facilities in 2019 came from 729 products out of 3,572 products receiving the GDP preferential tariff," Retno said.



She noted a rise in the value of Indonesian exports to the US this year on account of the GSP status.



“Indonesia's exports to the US using the GSP facilities from January to August, 2020 were valued at US$1.87 billion (nearly Rp27.3 trillion), up 10.6 percent compared to the same period a year earlier,” the minister said.



According to data from the US International Trade Commission (USITC), Indonesia's exports to the US via the GSP facility last year touched US$2.61 billion (nearly Rp38.2 trillion), or 13.1 percent of Indonesia's total exports to the US, which were pegged at US$20.1 billion (about Rp293.86 trillion). (INE)


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