The European Union (EU) and Indonesia have shared good friendship for decades. This relationship has deepened over the years through robust EU-Indonesia trade and investment relationships. In 2018, the total trade in goods between the two economies reached €26.8 billion, with the EU exporting €8.9 billion worth of goods (mostly industrial products), while Indonesia's exports to the EU amounted to €15 billion (industrial, agricultural and fishery products).
To enhance the capacity of Indonesia, the largest economy in ASEAN, the EU has extended further assistance to Indonesia in the form of a technical assistance project called the ASEAN Regional Integration Support by the European Union Plus Indonesia - Trade-Related Assistance (ARISE+ Indonesia). The ARISE Indonesia project complements a wider ARISE Plus regional economic integration programme.
Head of Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia Vincent Piket (centre), Deputy Minister of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Bambang Prijambodo (right) and Director General of National Export Development of the Ministry of Trade Dody Edward (left) at the inauguration of ARISE+ Indonesia in Jakarta on 25 September 2019.
ARISE+ Indonesia is a project of support that aims to strengthen the capacity of government institutions and stakeholders on a wide range of areas within international trade, competitiveness and business environment. It is coordinated by BAPPENAS, the Indonesian National Development Planning Ministry, which is also an implementing agency, together with the Ministry of Trade and additional ministries, government agencies and stakeholders that have a direct interest in the areas covered by the project. ARISE Plus-Indonesia is implemented with the support of a team of experts known as the technical assistance team (TAT) provided by a consortium of consultancy companies headed by Cardno Emerging Markets, Belgium s.a. and contracted by the EU Delegation (EUD) in Indonesia.
The project responds to the importance given by both the EU and Indonesia, to trade cooperation and technical assistance and supports trade and investment policy, trade facilitation, export quality infrastructure and geographical indications.
These priority areas have been designed to bring strategic and long-lasting gains for the Indonesian economy. They build on the achievements of previous technical assistance projects: the EU-Indonesia Trade Cooperation Facility (TCF) and the EU-Indonesia Trade Support Project Phase II (TSP II). The TCF project had already contributed to trade and investment policy, trade facilitation IPR/GI, TSP II focused on making headway in the area of quality infrastructure. ARISE Plus-Indonesia has thus been conceptualised in a logic of continuity. All four priority areas are further split into components, which provides an effective way of organising work and allocating resources to specific groups of interventions.
The Expected Results of the project are as follows:
- Enhanced institutional capacities to implement and coordinate strategic policies related to trade and investment sectors.
- Improved trade related competencies Indonesia to implement the Indonesia EU-Indonesia FTA/CEPA and the WTO Trade Facilitation.
- Export Quality Infrastructure and National Quality Assurance system are implemented in line with international best practices and standards, thus increasing export competitiveness.
- Improved capacities of national and local stake holders to develop Geographical Indications (GI) to enhance the local economy and employment opportunities in the region.
- Improved awareness and knowledge of the domestic industry including SMEs in participating in Global Value Chains. This is a cross-cutting result that will be addressed across all priority areas covered by ARISE Plus-Indonesia.
The project will also engage the private sector, contribute to gender inclusion and women empowerment where possible. In addition to this the project has a well-developed monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the project is on track and visibility and outreach plan to keep stake holders informed and updated on the project. Two key concepts in the project’s overall objective are sustainability and inclusivity.