Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wrapped up a three-day visit to Indonesia on Tuesday. In meetings with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the two countries signed several agreements to boost trade, with Widodo encouraging China to invest more in Southeast Asia's largest economy. 

During this visit, President Widodo expressed his interest in exporting more Indonesian commodities to China, including coffee, cocoa and crude palm oil. That would largely help and support the agricultural industry in the country, which contributes a large part to its economy.

In a brief joint press conference, President Widodo said “As a country with more than one billion people, China can be a huge market for Indonesia’s commodities and other local products. I spoke to Premier Li on the importance of increasing exports to China and it was very well received by him. By this year, we will increase our palm oil exports to China to a minimum of 500,000 tons.”

Aside from agreeing to increase crude palm oil exports, President Widodo also pushed for exports of other tropical products, such as local Indonesian fruits including mangosteens and snake fruit.

Premier Li himself showed willingness to further strengthen those ties with the Indonesian government to build stronger economic corridors.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met with Premier Li as well, where she stressed the importance of bringing technological advances along with Chinese investments into the country to further develop Indonesia’s economy.

President Widodo’s main priority is to create a comfortable business environment for Chinese investors, as China is one of the largest investors to Indonesia. One of the most important topics of discussion was the infrastructure projects that are currently ongoing under the Belt and Road Initiative, such as the slum upgrading programs across Indonesia and the much-awaited Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project, which is expected to be completed in 2020.

Indonesia is still building some 200 national strategic projects that needs around 294 billion US dollars, which makes China’s support all the more important in the country’s infrastructure goals.

This marks Premier Li’s first overseas trip since China's new cabinet took office in March.