Director General for Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade Isy Karim said that West Papua Province has great potential in national trade and tourism.
According to Isy, West Papua is rich in agricultural and forestry products. In addition, the range of its tourism products is also quite broad, from underwater tourism to forests and mountains.
“West Papua has tremendous potential to be promoted. Commodities ranging from coffee, nutmeg, seaweed, and tourism are quite plentiful starting from under the sea, nature reserves, tourism forests and many more which need to be promoted,” said Isy at the webinar Proud to be Made in Indonesia: Let’s Go Global West Papua which was held in Jakarta, Monday (12/6/2023).
Based on data from the Ministry of Trade, West Papua’s economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 was 3.13 per cent annually.
One of the main contributors to the regional gross domestic product (GDP) by business field is the food and beverage processing industry at 29.56 per cent. This is followed by mining and quarrying at 18.98 per cent and construction at 11.71 per cent.
Isy stated that the largest export value in West Papua in March 2023 came from oil and gas which reached 276.31 million US dollars or 98.89 per cent of total exports. While non-oil and gas value amounted to 3.09 million US dollars.
Furthermore, China became the main export destination country for West Papua with a contribution of 171.51 million US dollars or 61.38 per cent of total exports.
“For this reason, this is something that we need to raise, one of which is in the framework of the National Proud of Indonesia-made Products and Proud of Traveling in Indonesia Movements,” Isy said.
The National Proud of Indonesia-made Products and Proud of Traveling in Indonesia Movements began on 10-12 May 2023 to introduce superior micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) products.
This programme is an opportunity to encourage micro, small and medium enterprises to upgrade their products so that they have a wider marketing reach. In addition, many tourism potentials can also be developed.
West Papua Now 