EU-RI trade and investment relations

Trade between the European Union (EU) and ASEAN has increased fourfold since the signing of the EU-ASEAN Cooperation Agreement in 1980. It has grown at an average of 16 percent per annum over the past six years and reached ECU 79.2 billion in 1996.

Trade between Indonesia and the EU in 1996 was ECU 14.1 billion, which puts Europe second after Japan on the list of Indonesia's trading partners. The EU is now the biggest export market for Indonesia's manufacturing products.

From 1967 to 1997, total foreign direct investment approvals in Indonesia accrued to ECU 149 billion. Nearly 30 percent of this amount originated from EU member states with the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany accounting for 27 percentage points. During this period, European investments in Indonesia were greater than those from Japan, 21 percent, the U.S., 8 percent, or Asian countries, such as Hong Kong, 10 percent, Taiwan, 6 percent, Singapore, 7 percent, or South Korea, 5 percent.

Main sectors for foreign investment are chemicals, paper industries and metal goods. While other Asian countries invest largely in labor-intensive export industries, like garments and footwear, European investments have concentrated on capital- intensive enterprises that supply the domestic market, such as food, paper, chemical and nonmetallic mineral industries.