Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia has made its first export shipment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under the Indonesia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IUAE-CEPA).

The first shipment comprised gold jewelry targeting three buyers in Dubai. The jewelry, which was valued at US$6.98 million, arrived in Dubai on Friday, the Indonesian embassy in Abu Dhabi informed in a press release on Saturday.

“This is a good sign … I believe the increasing number of exports from Indonesia to UAE could attract more investment to Indonesia in the future,” Indonesian Ambassador to the UAE, Husin Bagis, said.

The implementation of the IUAE-CEPA, which came into force on September 1, 2023, will provide benefits to Indonesia since the UAE has eliminated and reduced import duty rates.

Indonesian products for which the import tariff has been eliminated include jewelry, paper products, palm oil, soap, motor vehicles, butter, iron and steel products, electrical equipment and electronics, wood pulp, vehicle tires, footwear, batteries, fabric products, coal, and clove.

The IUAE-CEPA is the first bilateral economic agreement between Indonesia and a member country of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Negotiations on the agreement were completed quickly in around nine months.

The agreement is expected to boost the total trade value of both countries to more than US$10 billion within three years.

The IUAE-CEPA agreement covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, Islamic economics, provisions of origin of goods, customs procedures and trade facilitation, economic cooperation, government procurement of goods and services, small and medium enterprises, digital trade, as well as legal provisions and institutional issues.

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Reporter: Shofi Ayudiana
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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