Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship to Push Region to Become Production Hub

President Jokowi visits the Sarinah shopping center, Jakarta, Thursday (05/04). (Photo by: BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/Muchlis Jr)

Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship this year is geared to push the region to be a production hub, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.

According to him, the move is in line with the theme adopted by Indonesia in its Chairmanship, which states that ASEAN is ‘the Epicenter of Growth’.

“ASEAN Member States produce a large variety of products. This is the force that we want to bring together so the region can become a production hub, especially based on our potentials, for instance EV batteries, electric vehicles, and products that are highly competitive compared to those produced by other countries,” the President told journalists at Sarinah shopping center in Central Jakarta, Thursday (05/04).

The President also pointed out that ASEAN is a region with enormous potentials that include, among others, a population of more than 650 million people coupled with relatively high economic growth.

“We are aware that ASEAN has huge potentials that is home to 650 million people. The economic growth is always above the average of global economic growth,” he said.

“So our focus will be on ASEAN as the hub of economic growth, the ‘Epicenter of Growth’. That’s where we are heading,” he remarked. (BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/AIT) (FI/EP)