Queen News World / Tangerang Regency, October 16, 2026 – Indonesian Minister of Trade Budi Santoso stated that Indonesia has the opportunity to boost trade and investment cooperation with the Solomon Islands. This effort can be pursued through the strengthening of business-to-business relations, trade diversification, as well as exploring dialogue and trade cooperation. By doing so, Indonesia can venture into potential new markets while strengthening mutually beneficial economic relations.
This was conveyed during Trade Minister Busan's meeting with the Minister of Commerce, Industry, Labour and Immigration of the Solomon Islands, Harry Kuma, on Friday (16/10) in Tangerang Regency, Banten. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 41st Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) BSD City.
“Indonesia sees a great opportunity to increase trade and investment cooperation with the Solomon Islands. We want to foster stronger, more diverse, and mutually beneficial trade relations, while opening up more partnership opportunities for business actors in both countries,” said Trade Minister Busan.
He explained that trade between Indonesia and the Solomon Islands shows positive development. Nevertheless, Indonesia still needs to strengthen its export performance and broaden the variety of traded products.
“We encourage optimizing untapped market potential. Indonesian products such as palm oil derivatives, coffee, sugar, and processed food products have the opportunity to expand market penetration in the Solomon Islands. At the same time, we are open to exploring various trade opportunities according to market needs,” Trade Minister Busan continued.
In addition to increasing trade, both countries also highlighted the importance of strengthening business-to-business relations. To this end, Trade Minister Busan encouraged the optimization of trade promotion, business matching, business delegation exchanges, and trade missions to directly bring together Indonesian and Solomon Islands business actors. This step is expected to open new partnership opportunities and encourage increased trade and investment between the two nations.
Trade Minister Busan also proposed exploring intergovernmental trade dialogue between Indonesia and the Solomon Islands every two years. This dialogue is expected to serve as a forum to identify trade barriers, discuss cooperation opportunities, and follow up on business potentials identified through business-to-business meetings.
On the other hand, Minister Harry appreciated Indonesia's warm welcome for the Solomon Islands business delegation at the 41st TEI. He assessed that the Solomon Islands has opportunities to expand cooperation with Indonesia, including through the development of potential sectors and enhanced access to food and fishery products.
Harry also emphasized the importance of strengthening direct business-to-business relations through cooperation between the chambers of commerce of both countries. He hopes that business forums and the facilitation of meetings between entrepreneurs can open new partnership opportunities, encourage investment, and help business actors from both nations understand each other's market potential.
Accompanying Trade Minister Busan at the meeting were the Ministry of Trade's Director General of International Trade Negotiations Johni Martha and Director General of National Export Development Fajarini Puntodewi.
The Solomon Islands ranks 126th as a non-oil and gas export destination country for Indonesia and 100th as a source country for Indonesia's non-oil and gas imports. From January to August 2026, total trade between the two countries reached USD 43.8 million. Indonesia's exports to the Solomon Islands were recorded at USD 15.6 million, while Indonesia's imports from the Solomon Islands were USD 28.2 million. Meanwhile, in 2025, total bilateral trade was recorded at USD 40.8 million, with Indonesian exports at USD 26.8 million and imports at USD 14.0 million.
Indonesia's main exports to the Solomon Islands include animal or vegetable fats and oils, flour preparations, processed foods, tobacco, as well as soap and cleaning preparations. Meanwhile, Indonesia's imports from the Solomon Islands include ores, slag, and ash; cocoa and chocolate; electrical machinery and equipment; mechanical machinery and appliances; as well as books and printed goods.(*)
