Bangladesh Ambassador meets with Kadin East Java

Ambassador of the People's Republic of Bangladesh to Indonesia Md. Tarikul Islam visited the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) East Java in Surabaya City, East Java Province. The visit aims to increase the ambassador's understanding about East Java's business and trade prospects.

Tarikul said that Bangladesh and Indonesia have a lot of potential to increase cooperation in the fields of trade and investment. With its important role in both, Kadin East Java has a wide network in various sectors and involves many entrepreneurs.

"Today, we have discussed several opportunities, including in the field of general production services that can be worked on together. We also emphasized the need to improve business-to-business (B2B) relations to identify superior products that could be developed together. In addition, we talked about investment potential and opportunities to establish cooperation, such as joint ventures," he said in a Kadin East Java release on Jan. 18, 2025.

Some East Javan products that are considered to have good potential include furniture, factory products, and consumer goods. There are also investment opportunities in the province's agriculture sector. Tarikul said that many entrepreneurs in Bangladesh are interested in expanding their businesses to Indonesia, especially to sectors such as food production.

"We also see the potential for investment from East Java entrepreneurs to Bangladesh, especially in the leather industry, pharmaceuticals, and to meet the demand for clothing or garments. Therefore, we hope there will be more in-depth discussions to understand the needs and opportunities of both countries," he said.

Tarikul also plans to bring a delegation of leading businesses from Bangladesh to visit Indonesia. His party will then arrange a meeting with Kadin East Java and conduct visits to several companies in the region. The planned visit aims to deepen discussions on potential cooperation, both in the form of joint ventures and investments.

"We hope that they (the businesses involved) will be able to get to know more about each other's potential and needs through the B2B delegation meeting," he explained.

Currently, there are many products from Bangladesh that depend on goods from Indonesia, especially food products, raw materials for industry, and energy sources. Bangladesh also makes various products needed by Indonesia, such as pharmaceutical devices, ready-made garments (RMG), leather goods, engineering products, electronics, and home appliances.

"We see many important opportunities to strengthen and deepen business and trade relations between Bangladesh and Indonesia. We are very grateful to Kadin East Java for the welcoming and constructive discussions at this meeting. We hope that the collaboration could continue, and [for] the relationship between the two countries will continue to develop in the future," Tarikul stated.

On the same occasion, Kadin East Java Promotion and Foreign Trade Deputy Chair Tommy Kayhatu, who is also a Universitas Ciputra professor, explained that trade relations between East Java and Bangladesh have been quite good and continue to show improvement.

"The balance of trade (BoT) value during the 2020-2024 period4 is quite good and reached a surplus [for Indonesia]. The 10 non-oil and gas commodities of East Java exported to Bangladesh include salt, sulfur, and lime; coffee, tea, spices, oilseeds, and animal products; paper, cardboard, soap, and cleaning preparations; organic chemicals, various chemical products, iron, and steel; as well as plastic and plastic goods. [As] Bangladesh is one of the non-traditional export destinations for East Java, it was ranked 23^rd in 2020, 20^th in 2021, 26^th in 2022 and 2023, then 24^th for the January-July 2024 period," said Tommy.

Meanwhile, East Java's import commodities from Bangladesh are tobacco, patchwork, electrical machinery and equipment, and textile fibers and paper yarn; cotton wadding, rope, headgear, and knitted goods; as well as leather goods and non-knitted ready-made clothing.

"As one of the countries of origin of non-traditional imports to East Java, Bangladesh was ranked 74^th in 2020, 65^th in 2021, 67t^th in 2022, 68^th in 2023, then 73^rd for the January-July 2024 period," he elaborated.