SCC hails milestone new trade ties with populous Indonesia
Business and trade relations between Scotland and Indonesia, one of Asia’s biggest and fastest-growing nations, have taken a “significant leap forward”, Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) reveals today.
It follows the official signing of a “B2B agreement” between SCC and Britcham Indonesia in Edinburgh earlier this week by Tim Allan, president of the SCC, and Britcham Indonesia executive director, Chris Wren.
Allan said today: “The country is too large for Scotland to ignore, this new agreement is a step towards changing the currently underdeveloped state of our business relations with this exciting market.
“The experience of our successfulandrecentlycompleted trade mission to China is that businessflourisheswhenbusinesses spend time together.
“Although government and its agencies can create the circumstances, only business can do the deals, and the purpose of today’s agreement is to strengthen these B2B ties between us.”
The signing was conducted in the presence of the Indonesian Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency Dr Rizal Sukma, and Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs & Fair Work.
It commits both parties to share information and pool resources to boost Scotland’s trading activities in the world’s fourth most populous nation.
As well as the high-level agreement, the event to promote ties with the Southeast Asian nation also saw the signing of a milestone agreement between high-growth Scots space and technology services company Astrosat with Indonesian conservationists Global Alam Lestari (PT GAL) and Forest Carbon.
The agreement will see Astrosat’s powerful Earth observation satellites being used to provide enhanced landscape monitoring of more than 22,000 hectares of rainforest in Sumatra’s Merang biodiversity corridor.
Scottish companies comprise a small fraction of total UK investment in Indonesia, forecast by consultants Mckinsey to become the seventh biggest economy in the world by 2030.
An archipelago stretching over 3,000 miles, comprising 17,000 islands with a population of 256 million, Indonesia presents a “major opportunity” for Scottish businesses and educational institutions, Allan added.
Brown pledged Holyrood would boost engagement with Indonesiaandannouncedthat its overseas trade and inward investment agency SDI will deploy a representative in Jakarta.
mflanagan@scotsman.com