ASEAN Business Talks with the theme “ASEAN PR Preneur” is organized by ASEAN Public Relations Network (APRN), London School of Public Relations (LSPR), Jakarta. On this occasion, the Directorate General of National Export Development submitted the Competitiveness Development Strategy of SMEs including several trade policies that support the increase of Indonesian exports.
“Indonesia’s economic growth, over the past several years, has relatively slowed down,” Ari Satria, secretary of the National Export Development Directorate General, noted. Indonesia is optimistic of increasing its economic growth this year, with a projection of between 5.1 percent and 5.3 percent.

Apart from the economic growth projection, the Trade Ministry has also set a target of increasing exports by 5.63 percent for non-oil and non-gas products.
The market share for Indonesian products also expanded to Africa, particularly South Africa and other African countries.
Apart from market expansion through FTAs with several African nations, the trade ministry’s official also touched on the logistics aspect in international trade that often poses a problem for the export activities of small- and medium-scale industries.

“For the ASEAN, logistics tariffs are expensive, as the active expedition services belong to foreign firms. The government and relevant ministries have issued 14 economic policy packages and are discussing to issue the 15th package,” he revealed.

Satria said the latest policy will encompass the logistics aspects where the government will necessitate exporters of certain commodities to use the national logistics services. Other countries’ trade policies pose further challenges for Indonesia in its international trade.
In addition to the Directorate General of National Export Development, this talks present the speakers of GM Corporate Affairs of PT Nusantara Infrastructure, Deden Rochmawaty, with a sub-theme of PR Roles in Increasing Competitiveness of SMEs in ASEAN and Global. ASEAN Business Talks, which opened with remarks by APRN President Prita Kemal Gani, is the Road to ASEAN Public Relations Conference 2017 on 20-23 September 2017 in Bali. ASEAN Business Talks attended by business actors, corporate PR, academics, and alumni of LSPR aims to develop Indonesian SMEs into the ASEAN market.