Swisscontact featured its projects on skills development, sustainable agriculture, and international trade, during the launching of the Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)-Indonesia cooperation programme 2025-2028. The event was part of the ministerial visit of His Excellency Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER), hosted by Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS) on Wednesday, October 1.
“The launch of our new 2025-2028 economic development programme marks an important milestone in Swiss–Indonesian cooperation. It reflects our shared values and our commitment to Indonesia Emas (Golden Indonesia) 2045. Together with our Indonesian partners, we will foster inclusive growth, strengthen sustainable value chains, empower youth, and design urban development solutions that respond to people’s aspirations,” said H.E. Parmelin during the event.
Swisscontact’s initiatives resonate well with the programme’s ongoing focus.
The Swiss Skills for Competitiveness Initiative booth, featuring the Skills for Competitiveness (S4C) and Sustainable Tourism Education Development (STED) projects, showcased its latest knowledge products and milestones. The products, namely Structured Internship Guidelines and Industry-Based Curriculum modules, are essential in implementing the Swiss-inspired dual vocational education and training (dVET) approach, where students learn at school and practice their skills at the companies. It also explains several milestones where 293 companies collaborating with partner polytechnics to implement internship programs, 390 in-company trainers (In-CT) trained, and 16 study program curricula jointly developed by polytechnics and the private sectors.
Moreover, the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) highlighted how through their work, Swiss importers have access to high-qualified and curated suppliers. Such access supports them to diversify import sources, sustainable and ethical trade, strong trade ties with emerging markets. This also enhance Switzerland’s global trade reputation as a fair and development-oriented trading partner. Working with four business support organisations (BSOs), SIPPO supports 343 Indonesian export-ready companies, with US$1.7 million in potential transaction secured during trade fairs and commercial mission for coffee, technical wood, and fish and seafood.
Meanwhile, Swisscontact’s Leuser Alas-Singkil River-basin (LASR) Project, part of the Sustainable Landscape Programme Indonesia (SLPI) under the UNDP coordination, is driving private-sector sustainability in Aceh’s Leuser Ecosystem. Through a jurisdictional landscape approach, LASR has engaged 11 companies oil palm for traceability and upgraded sustainability practices in 7 companies. At the farm level, the Project has trained 9,533 farmers, certified 819 smallholders under RSPO, and enabled 1,947 cocoa farmers to meet Rainforest Alliance standards. At the heart of this effort is district-level multi-stakeholder forums convening dozens of landscape-level practitioners, including producers and buyers, and aligning diverse interests into a shared vision and action for sustainable palm oil.
In momentous events like this, Swisscontact shows how it continues to create opportunities in Indonesia: by playing a key role in developing graduates with industry-relevant skills, making natural commodities more sustainably grown and sourced, and strengthening export-ready companies to enter the Swiss and EU markets.