Vision Group Report: Invigorating the Indonesia-EU Partnership

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Cooperation and capacity
building
Thanks to the opportunities opened up by the Partnership
and Cooperation Agreement, the EU and Indonesia have
started cooperating in new areas such as on security issues,
research and technology, human rights, cooperation on
culture and education.
For the Vision Group, three pillars should underpin
the successful industrial cooperation between the two
economies: liberalisation, facilitation and capacity building.
Based on experience, capacity building is becoming a
critical tool to any successful bilateral economic agreement,
especially in implementing economic agreements between
an industrialised country and a developing country.
Therefore, the conventional approach of liberalising an
economy through reduction and elimination tariffs, in order
to facilitate and boost the trade, is now complemented with
targeted cooperation activities.
Based on analyses conducted it has been indicated that
some Indonesian products, mainly primary products and
selected manufactured products are competitive vis-àvis
European products. It has also been shown that full
trade liberalisation between the two sides is expected to
create economic welfare and stimulate economic growth.
However, it is important to note that, since the size and
strength of the economies is different and the relevant
infrastructure of the EU is more developed compared to
Indonesia, it seems unavoidable that liberalisation of
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