Trade links with SE Asia increasingly vital

China sees Indonesia as one of its most important partners among the ASEAN countries, said an expert in regional trade relations.

Trade between the two has developed rapidly since they resumed diplomatic relations in 1990, said Wu Chongbo, a professor specializing in Southeast Asian studies at Fujian-based Xiamen University.

Statistics show that bilateral trade between China and Indonesia hit $66.2 billion in 2012, a 9.4 percent increase over the previous year.

Of the amount, China's imports stood at $20.86 billion, accounting for approximately 15 percent of Indonesia's total exports and making China the Southeast Asian country's largest export destination.

In addition to expanding trade, Indonesia is attracting more and more Chinese investment over the past few years.

In 2012, China's direct investment in Indonesia reached $2.12 billion, more than double the figure in 2010.

Also, two of China's four State-owned banks - Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China - have established branches in the Southeast Asian country.

Wu said China Development Bank and The Export-Import Bank of China will follow their footsteps to provide "the capital Indonesia's infrastructure construction requires".

Wu expects the government will continue investing heavily in the sector in the following five years. By the end of 2010, more than 1,000 companies had made investments with a combined value of $6 billion, mostly in such sectors as infrastructure and energy.