BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is repositioning itself from a traditional commodity exporter to a supply-chain partner for global growth, with "value creation inside Indonesia" as the central thread across all areas of cooperation, Anindya Novyan Bakrie, Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin Indonesia) said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
Bakrie made the remarks on the sidelines of the Fourth China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), held from June 22 to June 26 in Beijing. He was leading a delegation of Indonesian business representatives to the expo.
Describing CISCE as more than a conventional trade fair, Bakrie called it a comprehensive platform spanning technology, industry, logistics, finance and market access across the entire supply chain.
"We are coming to position Indonesia as a serious supply-chain partner for global growth," Bakrie told Xinhua.
His remarks came amid growing global challenges including decoupling, protectionism and industrial fragmentation, which have triggered regional restructuring of global industrial chains and made supply-chain resilience a shared priority across emerging markets.
The relationship between China and Indonesia, Bakrie noted, is no longer marginal. Bilateral trade reached approximately 167.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.
Indonesia's strengths, he said, span critical minerals, a vast agricultural and fisheries base, growing manufacturing capabilities and a digital economy comprising some 65.5 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
On the demand side, Bakrie outlined practical priorities: stronger market access for Indonesian products, Chinese technology and investment to support local processing and value addition, and improved logistics, standards, certification and digital traceability.
While the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway remains a flagship symbol of Indonesia-China cooperation, Bakrie observed that the relationship today is moving "beyond single projects into broader industrial ecosystems" -- from minerals and metals to electric vehicles, digital payments, industrial parks and increasingly food and agriculture.
For the next phase of cooperation, he identified five high-potential sectors.
"The common thread is value creation inside Indonesia," he said, framing the future around co-production, technology transfer, local jobs and stronger regional supply chains.
MSMEs, Bakrie stressed, sit at the centre of this agenda. Indonesian MSMEs contribute more than 61 percent of GDP and employ approximately 119 million workers. Kadin's role, he said, is to make their connection to global markets practical through business matchmaking, export-readiness support, better standards and traceability, and full utilisation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
To that end, Kadin is developing a trade AI advisor tool to help companies seize opportunities through trade agreements. "The benefits of RCEP will only become real if businesses use them," he said.
On green and digital transformation, Bakrie added that Indonesia and China can build a "truly future-oriented partnership." He noted that Indonesia's net-zero transformation represents a 3.8-trillion-U.S. dollar opportunity through 2050, "not only a climate agenda" but an industrial, investment and supply-chain opportunity. He cited the China-Indonesia QR payment linkage as proof that digital infrastructure can facilitate activity for small businesses.
For Bakrie, ASEAN-China cooperation should ultimately be seen as more than a trade relationship -- it is "a regional stability mechanism." China's hosting of CISCE, he said, signals that supply chains should be connected, not divided.
"Stronger supply chains create stronger trust, and stronger trust creates stronger regional resilience," he concluded. That, he said, is the real meaning of a win-win partnership between two major developing countries and two important voices of the Global South.
(Contributed by Cao Kai and Feng Yulin)
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