OREANDA-NEWS. President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin proposed to consider the creation of a free trade zone (FTZ) between the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Indonesia.

“I believe that it would be possible to work out the issue of forming an agreement on trade, economic and investment cooperation between the EAEU and Indonesia. Then we could move towards the corresponding agreement between the EAEU and ASEAN”, he said during a speech at the Russian-Indonesian business forum in Moscow.

At the same time, Shokhin noted already existing successful examples of EAEU cooperation with other countries. So, according to him, since the launch of the FTZ with Vietnam in 2016, trade between countries has grown significantly. "I think that signing and even negotiations, which include an unconditional matching of the positions of the business communities of the two countries on this agreement, could breathe new life into our relations and return to the positive dynamics of bilateral relations", he concluded.

According to a survey conducted among participants in the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs at the end of 2018, the number of Russian companies interested in cooperating with Indonesia tripled. Nevertheless, according to Shokhin, the development of Russian-Indonesian foreign economic relations "lags behind the desire of Russian and Indonesian companies to work more energetically". 

He also added that the main difficulties in the development of economic relations between the two countries are the lack of a comprehensive examination of joint projects, the lack of mutual information (especially regarding projects at the regional level), the complex logistics of product deliveries and the high administrative burden.