On 23rd February 2026, SwedCham, in collaboration with DanCham, EuroCham, Indonesia-Norway Business Council, and the Embassy of Sweden, organized an event titled From Agreement to Action: The CEPA Explained: What the EU-Indonesia Free Trade Arrangement Means in Practice.
The event was opened by Lars Dagerholt, Chairman of SwedCham and Daniel Blockert, Ambassador of Sweden. It was followed by the keynote presentations by Carsten Sorensen, EU Delegation to Indonesia. Carsten presented the current state of CEPA and expressed hope for the agreement, as long as it is properly implemented by both sides. If all goes as planned, CEPA will go into effect from January 2027 and is expected to eliminate tariffs on 96% of traded goods after the transition period of 5 years.
It was followed by Johni Martha, Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Trade for International Relations, who strongly believed that the CEPA agreement would support GDP growth of both Indonesian and European countries. He stated that the agreement ensures equal treatment for both sides and opens new opportunities for trade and investment.
Thereafter there were presentations from Ronni Nurmal from Ericsson, Edison Bako from EuroCham and last Erik Odar from Business Sweden.
The presentations were followed by a very extensive Q&A and a panel discussion with the keynote presenters as well as Mark Lempp, Business Editor, The Jakarta Post. Mark Lempp was raising questions that led to very interesting discussions, mainly regarding the practical implementation of CEPA and its long-term impact on EU–Indonesia relations.
Attendees had good opportunities to network both before and after the keynote presentations.
We thank all participants for their interest in our event, and we would like to express our gratitude to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia for hosting the event.
Please stay tuned on the coming events by visiting DanCham’s website www.dancham.id and LinkedIn page @Danish-Indonesian Business Chamber to get updates.
Reported and Written by: Freja Toft
