Indonesia Overview

Photo credit

Heather Garven

12:29am Saturday 11 September

New Zealand and Indonesia enjoy a strong and growing trade/economic relationship. The bilateral relationship is underpinned by cooperation in regional and international forums and by New Zealand's long-standing development assistance programme in Indonesia (which is the largest NZAID programme in Asia).

Indonesia is the world's third largest democracy, with the largest Muslim population in the world. The population is estimated to be 235.8 million (the fourth most populous country in the world). Indonesia is also the world's largest archipelago with approximately 18,000 islands spanning the equator and three time zones. It is ethnically diverse, with around 360 languages spoken.

Indonesia has considerable influence in regional and international affairs, both bilaterally and through international forums. Indonesia is important to New Zealand and other members of the Asia-Pacific region by virtue of its size, strategic location and natural resources.

Map of Indonesia and surrounding region with ASEAN neighbours marked

Key demographics

Official Name	Republic of Indonesia
Land Area	1,904,443 km²
Population	238 million (July 2008 est.)
Capital City	Jakarta
Religion	Muslim (officially 88% of the population), with significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities
Language	Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), plus approximately 360 regional languages and dialects
Currency	Rupiah (Rp)

Key statistics

GDP	US$432.94 billion
GDP per capita	US$3,730 (PPP estimate 2007)
Total exports	US$114.1billion
Total imports	US$74.47billion
Total NZ exports to Indonesia	NZ$958.7 million (2007-8)
Total NZ imports from Indonesia	NZ$823.2 million (2007-8)

Sources of data: IMF (GDP data), World Bank (export/imports) and Statistics New Zealand (NZ exports/imports).