Transcript: Indonesia insights and opportunities
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Kym Hewitt ‒ Senior Trade Commissioner Indonesia
Kym manages 20 staff in Jakarta, one of Austrade’s largest posts. Kym and his team focus on strengthening the dynamic commercial ties between Australia and Indonesia. Their efforts include the high-growth automotive industry and the export of Australia’s mining expertise, as well as education and training initiatives. Kym speaks Mandarin, Malay and Korean.
He joined Austrade in 1986 and has spent most of his career in Asia. He has served as Senior Trade Commissioner in Korea as well as Malaysia and China. In Dubai, Kym was Consul General, Dubai and Senior Trade Commissioner, Middle East and North Africa.
Transcript
>>Kym Hewitt: Most commentators believe that there is a significant gap between Australia’s positioning in the Indonesian market at present and the potential. So, at the moment Indonesia, the value of the market to Australia is about 6.6 billion dollars, it’s our 11th major export market, and for many that’s surprising given the scale of the market and its proximity to Australia. Certainly one of our priorities is to try to narrow that gap. By drawing the opportunities that increasingly the market offers in consumer and other spaces to Australian exporters and business.
In areas like consumer durables for example, Australia doesn’t have strength right across the supply chain, but we have pockets of deep expertise in various niches across that chain. And that’s a big opportunity for Australia in Indonesia.
The most significant trend in Indonesia at the moment is the dominance of the consumption sector as a driver of economic growth. So, consumption accounts for 60% of the economy, over 60% of growth and it reflects the passing through of this bulge of young, increasingly wealthy, young Indonesians.
The major opportunity for Australia in Indonesia is to connect to this sweet spot that I’ve just described, the consumption space. At the moment we tend to belong in things like food, mining equipment, technology and services, and they’re in a more difficult space that is exposed to government policy. The consumption space is where the real growth is happening, and that’s where the real opportunity is to connect regional value chains.
Indonesia is a country where the badge of government really counts for something. So it does open doors and provide vastly improved access to business and to government. So the service we provide of cultivating local networks, identifying opportunities, and then organising visit and introductory programs for Australian business people really do contain a lot of value in the market setting.
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