On the second day of the China Trade Fair Indonesia 2023 which was held at JIEXPO Kemayoran Jakarta, a number of businessmen held a meeting. This includes textile entrepreneurs from the Bamboo Curtain country who held a joint meeting with the Director for Promotion for East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Africa from the Ministry of Investment/Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Cahyo Purnomo. Cahyo Purnomo, who serves as director of investment and exhibition promotion, stated that the Indonesian government will further encourage closer cooperation between entrepreneurs of the two countries, especially textile and apparel entrepreneurs. "We will continue to encourage

potential cooperation between the two countries, for example the government will convince Chinese investors so they can continue to expand their business expansion in Indonesia. Likewise, for China, Indonesia will be used as a production base, where later Chinese factories will be established in Indonesia and can sell their goods in Indonesia as well as export them abroad," said Cahyo Purnomo on Thursday (25/5/2023).

Limiting the value of this investment, said Cahyo, is very important so that entrepreneurs from abroad do not compete directly with small and medium entrepreneurs. If investors from abroad fulfill the provisions of the applicable laws and regulations and entrepreneurs from outside can produce products that are good, competitive or affordable, then this will be an added value for Indonesian consumers to choose the variety of products they want.

Meanwhile, on the same occasion, Larissa Zhou, General Manager of Meorient international exhibition Indonesia, stated that Indonesia has a huge market potential.

"With such a large population that ranks fourth in the world, we want to continue to build a good relationship with Indonesia as a trading partner in many sectors," said Larissa.

In the future, continued Larissa, cooperation with Indonesia will be more colorful, not limited to textiles and apparel but also reaching various fields. Several areas of cooperation that will be explored include biomaterials, electronics, renewable energy and several other fields.

Larissa emphasized that the electronics sector and the building material sector are the two types of materials most needed by Indonesian entrepreneurs. "Since Indonesia was led by President Joko Widodo, development has accelerated so intensively and quickly. The demand for these two sectors is of course reasonable considering that so much infrastructure was built during Joko Widodo's time," said Larissa Zhou.

Meanwhile, BKPM noted that investment realization in the first quarter of 2023 reached IDR 328.9 trillion, growing 16.5 percent compared to the achievement in the same period in the previous year (yoy) of IDR 282.4 trillion.

Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM Bahlil Lahadalia said investment realization in that period also recorded a growth of 4.5 percent compared to the previous quarter (qoq) of IDR 314.8 trillion, although he admitted that 2023 was a tough year.

"Realized investment in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to IDR 328.9 trillion or 23.5 percent of the investment target of IDR 1,400 trillion," he said.