According to Trade Minister Budi Santoso, the IU-PTA can be an opportunity for Indonesia to expand its market, considering that Uzbekistan has the largest population in the Central Asian region of 36.5 million and is a non-traditional trading partner of Indonesia.
"This is one of the concrete steps of the Ministry of Trade's priority program to expand the export market," he said after a meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov here on Monday.
At the meeting, he also encouraged Uzbekistan to immediately form the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Trade and Investment Indonesia-Uzbekistan.
The establishment of the working group was agreed upon at a meeting between the representatives of the Indonesian and the Uzbek governments in Tashkent in May 2021.
In addition, Santoso expressed support for Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Indonesia and Uzbekistan have completed negotiations on market access for goods and services within the framework of the accession.
The minister also encouraged the technical teams of the two countries to immediately complete discussions on the procedures and timing for the signing of the Indonesia-Uzbekistan agreement protocol on goods and services within the framework of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO.
"Indonesia is ready to sign the Indonesia-Uzbekistan agreement protocol on goods and services within the framework of Uzbekistan's Accession to the WTO," Santoso informed.
Uzbekistan is the 129th export destination and the 53rd import origin for Indonesia. In 2019–2023, trade between the two countries grew by 49.04 percent.
Meanwhile, in 2024, the total trade between the two countries reached US$147.6 million, up 4.67 percent from US$141.1 million the previous year.
During this period, Indonesia's exports to Uzbekistan were recorded at US$25.8 million, while Indonesia's imports from Uzbekistan stood at US$121.9 million.
Indonesia's main exports to Uzbekistan include margarine, animal or vegetable fats and oils, electrical machinery and apparatus, other margarine, and instant coffee.
Indonesia's imports from Uzbekistan include potassium chloride, cotton linter pulp, fuel pumps, motor vehicle level gauges, and disodium carbonate.
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Translator: Maria Cicilia Galuh Prayudhia, Yashinta Difa
Editor: Primayanti
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