Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called for stronger regional economic integration as leaders of Australia and ASEAN gathered for a summit in Melbourne on Wednesday. 

As Australia and ASEAN marked the golden anniversary of their partnership, Jokowi wants to see both sides ramp up trade and investment ties. Jokowi also told Australia of how big ASEAN’s potential is as a region. According to Jokowi, ASEAN hosts over 650 million people, many of whom are young workers with high technology literacy. He also claimed ASEAN would become the fourth-largest economy by 2040.

“For that reason, I encourage [ASEAN and Australia] to strengthen economic integration, among others, through Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040,” Jokowi posted on social media platform X, not long after the summit.

Jokowi was referring to Australia’s blueprint that it had announced in 2023. As the name suggests, the document lays out Australia’s action plans to make sure its economic ties with ASEAN could go from strength to strength. The document showed that ASEAN-Australia two-way trade could reach around 465 billion Australian dollars (approximately $303 billion) in 2040 if trade continued to grow at the 20-year compound average growth rate of 5.5 percent. However, the trade numbers in 2040 could hit 534 Australian dollars at a 6.3 percent growth rate.

A separate press statement on the ASEAN-Australia Summit showed that Jokowi also brought up the bloc’s existing trade pacts with Melbourne. This includes the world’s largest trade pact: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). He mentioned the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA). Both pacts seek to lift trade barriers, among others, by eliminating tariffs. 

“We need to optimize our [existing] cooperation, including the RCEP and the AANZFTA,” Jokowi was quoted as saying in the said press statement. 

In 2022, Australia-ASEAN trade reached 178 billion Australian dollars. Australian goods exports to Southeast Asia were mainly minerals and fuels, which were worth 31.3 billion Australian dollars over the said year.



 

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