UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Dr Vince Cable Visit to Indonesia, 31 October – 1 November 2011
The United Kingdom (UK) Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Dr Vince Cable has visited Jakarta, Indonesia on an official business on 31 October- 1 November 2011 to expand and strengthened the economy, including trade and investment, cooperation between Indonesia and UK as well as to improve the tourism, education, development and infrastructure partnership between the two countries.
This visit has importance in terms of Indonesia – UK relations as it signifies the launching receptions of two significant business forums: the Annual Indonesia – UK Bilateral Trade Talks and the UK- ASEAN Business Council. During the visit, Secretary Cable paid a courtesy call to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Jero Wacik. Secretary Cable has also taken this opportunity to hold a round table discussion forum with Indonesian and British entrepreneurs as well as to attend a Higher Education Dialogue event held in Jakarta.
UK has long been a vital partner to Indonesia and this can be reflected by the continued economy cooperation and achievement between the two countries, in particular in the fields of investment, trade, and tourism.
The overall value of British investment to Indonesia from 1967 – 2009 has reached US$ 41, 38 billion with a total number of 1375 projects. This figure has put UK as the third largest foreign investor in Indonesia after Japan and Singapore. In the field of trade, the bilateral trade volume between Indonesia-UK as of April 2011 has reached US 879,05 million, in which the value of Indonesian exports to the UK has amounted to US$561,8 million and the imports amounted to US$317,2 million. On the tourism side, the number of tourists from UK entering Indonesia is the highest among other European countries, in which 180.000 British tourists visited Indonesia in 2010.
