Indonesia's Economic Diplomacy Towards ASEAN

Abstract

The activity of economic diplomacy, particularly trade cooperation at the bilateral as well as the multilateral level is an important instrument element of the state to stimulate economic development. As the 4th biggest world population, Indonesia has a strong potential for market of world’s product. Indonesia is a source of raw materials with more competitive prices compared to similar items from industrialized economies. The research analyzes Indonesian economic diplomacy during the era of President Joko Widodo, covering 2014-2017, focused on two of economic diplomacy’s activities; trade promotion and increasing foreign direct investment. The Indonesian diplomatic performances will be evaluated by SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis. Discussion focuses on economic diplomacy towards Vietnam, formulated into the questions: “How does Indonesian diplomacy in ASEAN, with particular case in Vietnam?”, and “Why it is less appealing to invest in Indonesia?”As diplomacy is conducted at the bilateral and the regional level, the discussion would also include the implementation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to develop the Indonesian economy. One important finding is that Indonesian diplomacy in ASEAN needs to be developed in order to explore new market and business opportunities for Indonesian products.