Indonesia and Canada launch export support project for 200 SMEs
The initiative focuses on handicrafts and home furniture, with women-led businesses targeted to make up two-thirds of participants.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade and the Trade Facilitation Office (TFO) Canada are working together to help 200 Indonesian small and medium-sized enterprises sell to Canada. The partnership will provide technical support for businesses producing handicrafts and home furniture.
The Trade for Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Economic Growth (TRISEG) project is a five-year initiative continuing until March 2030. Deden Muhammad Fajar Shiddiq, the ministry’s Director of Export Development for Manufactured Products, said TFO is supporting it with a CA$334,783 grant.
Alongside support for the participating businesses, the project seeks at least 20 commercial agreements and links with 20 new buyers in Canada. Two-thirds of the SMEs are intended to be women-led.
At the launch in Jakarta, Fajarini Puntodewi, the ministry’s Director General of National Export Development, said assistance would include design work, information on Canada’s market, forecasts of consumer trends and guidance on pricing. She said women-owned and women-led businesses would receive priority, but trade financing remained outside the programme despite being a major obstacle for exporters.
Shiddiq said he hoped the initiative would narrow Indonesia’s deficit in trade with Canada. Bilateral trade totalled US$3.51 billion during January-August 2026, up 15.5 per cent from a year earlier. Indonesia exported US$1.12 billion and imported US$2.39 billion.
Indonesian handicraft exports to Canada increased 21.8 per cent to US$8.41 million in 2025, Shiddiq said. They reached US$8.15 million through August 2026, a year-on-year rise of 46.5 per cent.
He also said wider market access was expected from the Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-CA CEPA), whose entry into force is anticipated on December 1, 2026.
