According to Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Jakarta , the Indonesian government has set a target of completing negotiations Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation ( CEPA ) with South Korea in the first half of this year , part of efforts to boost investment from national this Northeast Asia .
Director General for International Trade Cooperation , Ministry of Trade of Indonesia , he said Iman Pambagyo Indonesia and South Korea are intensifying consultations on the issue of promoting Korean investment in Indonesia after CEPA was signed , especially in high-tech fields , such as automobiles and electronics .
According to him , Indonesia and South Korea are all carefully considered to balance the interests of each side , by Indonesia may be less benefit from CEPA by this country mainly exports natural resources rather to Korea is produced goods .
Indonesia and South Korea began negotiating CEPA month 7/2012 and aims to complete negotiations by the end of 2013. However, so far , after six rounds of talks the two sides are still disagreements relating to tariff reductions in a number of sensitive areas , the actual investment commitments from the Korean company and the cooperation now to build the capacity of Indonesian businesses .
According to statistics , in the first 3 quarters of 2013, South Korea invested a total of $ 1.64 billion in Indonesia in various project 586 , lower than the U.S. $ 1.95 billion respectively in 2012 .
In the first 10 months of last year , trade turnover between the two countries reached U.S. $ 19.2 billion , down nearly 14.93 % from the previous year , while Indonesia’s exports to South Korea fell sharply to 26.09 % to U.S. $ 9.54 billion , while imports fell slightly 0.03 % to 9.66 billion dollars .
In a related move , Director General for International Cooperation of Industry , Ministry of Industry of Indonesia , Agus Tjahajana commitment to strong investment from South Korea is very important to help Indonesia combat the trade imbalance .
The official stressed that South Korea Indonesia desire to invest more in the field of electronics , petrochemical , automotive components and machinery . However, Indonesia will not be further tariff reductions at the request of South Korea , unless there is a clear framework to address imbalances in trade of Indonesia . / .