...we must think out of the box.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi outlined some strategies to transform trade and expedite national economy recovery at the opening of the ministry’s working meeting on ‘Structural Transformation of Trade and National Economic Recovery’ on Thursday.

"Nothing can be done instantly, thus, we must think out of the box," he remarked.

The first strategy for transforming the trade is preparing trade in the health sector to support the handling of the ongoing pandemic as well as prevention and mitigation of future pandemics, he said.

The second transformation strategy is to anticipate an increase in global staple food prices, he added.

Hence, Indonesia must ensure its domestic goods can support the stability of the global economy, he stressed.

He said he expects Indonesia to determine the price of its own products and not be disrupted by global inflation or global trade price.

This can be achieved through the cooperation of the ministry’s director general of foreign trade as well as director general of domestic trade negotiations with various global trade actors, he said.

"We must collaborate to ensure that global brands products manufactured in Indonesia can compete with the products from their country of origin," he explained.

The ministry will also closely cooperate with the market and entrepreneurs, Lutfi said. Thus, they can determine the prices of global trade products manufactured by Indonesia, he added.

"We can also ensure that domestic prices of the products are affordable and competitive,” Lutfi said.

In addition, Indonesia must realize uniform digital transformation since the digital economy can help ease the gap between rich and poor communities, he added.

"Hence, we must achieve the digitalization program for 1 million market traders in 2022. The attempt also aims to anticipate future pandemics and economic disturbances," he remarked.
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Translator: Sella Gareta, Uyu Liman
Editor: Suharto
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