Switzer­land-In­done­sia: Pri­vate sec­tor launches Trade and Sus­tain­abil­ity Coun­cil

Since the bi­lat­eral free trade agree­ment en­tered into force on 1 No­vem­ber 2021, the most com­pre­hen­sive sus­tain­abil­ity pro­vi­sions to date have also been ap­plied in Swiss trade with In­done­sia. For the Swiss busi­ness um­brella or­gan­i­sa­tion economiesu­isse and its mem­bers, it is clear that the pri­vate sec­tor has an im­por­tant role to play in strength­en­ing cross-bor­der trade as a dri­ver of sus­tain­abil­ity. The In­done­sian sis­ter as­so­ci­a­tion KADIN is com­mit­ted to the same prin­ci­ple. At the World Eco­nomic Forum in Davos and in the pres­ence of Swiss Fed­eral Coun­cil­lor Guy Parmelin and the In­done­sian Trade Min­is­ter Muham­mad Lutfi, the pres­i­dents of KADIN and economiesu­isse, Rasjid Ar­s­jad and Christoph Mäder, there­fore signed a mem­o­ran­dum of un­der­stand­ing to strengthen their co­op­er­a­tion.

Ini­tia­tive of the Swiss-In­done­sian pri­vate sec­tor

Diplo­matic re­la­tions be­tween Switzer­land and In­done­sia have ex­isted for over 70 years, and di­a­logue has in­ten­si­fied in re­cent years. Bi­lat­eral eco­nomic re­la­tions also look back on many decades. The launch of the Swiss-In­done­sian "Trade and Sus­tain­abil­ity Coun­cil" by KADIN and economiesu­isse today at the WEF marked a fur­ther step. The coun­cil fa­cil­i­tates reg­u­lar and cross-sec­toral ex­change be­tween com­pa­nies on sus­tain­abil­ity pro­jects and ini­tia­tives in the pri­vate sec­tor.

At the first meet­ing on 24 May 2022, im­por­tant Swiss and In­done­sian com­pany rep­re­sen­ta­tives from var­i­ous sec­tors as well as Swiss­con­tact and Switzer­land Global En­ter­prise ac­cepted the in­vi­ta­tion to Davos. Under the lead­er­ship of KADIN Chair­man Ar­s­jad Rasjid and economiesu­isse Chair­woman of the Ex­ec­u­tive Board, Monika Rühl, par­tic­i­pants dis­cussed not only co­op­er­a­tion po­ten­tial in the areas of cir­cu­lar econ­omy, en­ergy sup­ply, agri­cul­ture, and ed­u­ca­tion, but specif­i­cally the sup­port for SMEs in sus­tain­able busi­ness pro­jects.

More sus­tain­abil­ity through Swiss for­eign trade

Ul­ti­mately, only those busi­ness re­la­tion­ships that also take suf­fi­cient ac­count of the de­mands in the areas of so­cial, eco­log­i­cal, and eco­nomic sus­tain­abil­ity are suc­cess­ful in the long term and will be in­ter­na­tion­ally com­pet­i­tive. Swiss com­pa­nies not only ex­port goods, ser­vices, and in­vest­ments abroad, but also ideas, ex­pe­ri­ence, new tech­nolo­gies and knowl­edge to ad­dress key chal­lenges of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.