Deputy Foreign Minister of Indonesia for Asia Pacific and African Affairs Abdul Kadir Jailani on Saturday said that Pakistan and Indonesia posses a huge potential in the development of economic, trade and diplomatic ties in the future.
“In order to enhance the existing capabilities in the relations between the two countries, more intensive economic diplomacy is going on and there is already a consensus in both countries for that matter,” Deputy Foreign Minister of Indonesia for Asia Pacific and African Affairs told APP in in exclusive chat from Jakarta.
The bilateral trade between the two countries had already reached $4 billion dollars with more potential to be executed in the future, he said.
He said that there was already a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Pakistan and Indonesia which would help to promote mutual free trade in both sides.
The minister said that Pakistan was an important country in terms of its geographic location which shared borders with Central Asia, Middle East and China. He said that Indonesia would prove to be a gateway for Pakistan in the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries and that Pakistan was also willing to give Indonesia market excess in its region on which there is consensus in both sides.
He said the private sector of the two countries needed to come closer through dialogue through which both the economies could get better results by connecting with each other through mutual economic integration. Replying to a question, he said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)is an important project in which Indonesia was also thinking to investment.
Kadir Jailani said that Indonesia has its interest to invest in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Pakistan, which would promote economic and trade relations between the two countries.—APP
