Bilateral Economic Relationship Between Spain and Argentina Compared to Spain and Indonesia

: Argentina and Indonesia share a long history of being under Spanish colonial rule. When compared to Argentina, the influence of Spain's presence felt by Indonesia is much lighter, especially in the economic field. The objective of this essay is to examine and compare the bilateral relations maintained between Spain and Argentina compared to Spain and Indonesia in the field of economic cooperation mainly, but not limited to, the trade and investment sectors within the period of 2008-2017. The analysis of the essay will be carried out and elaborated in two ways by using quantitative methods of descriptive statistical analysis and the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) analysis. The essay begins by providing a general overview of the profiles of Argentina and Indonesia and their economic relations with Spain and then comparing trade and investment volumes after the latest financial crisis. The results show economic bilateral relations between Indonesia and Spain are still less dynamic compared to the economic bilateral relations established between Argentina and Spain. The trade turnover between Argentina and Spain is still much higher compared to Indonesia and Spain. Argentina is seen as the main trade partner for Spain whereas Indonesia is only seen as a strategic partner in trade. In terms of investment, Spain is the biggest investor in Argentina whereas in Indonesia the amount of investment coming from Spain is still very small.


INTRODUCTION
The financial crisis in 1997-1998 and the latest financial crisis in 2008-2009 were seen as the culmination of events that changed the global economic constellation (Audrienne and Supriadi 2016). Many countries are struggling with their respective economic recovery efforts. Argentina and Indonesia also became the two countries affected by the global financial crisis in late 2008. Argentina's economic conditions are relatively good compared to other countries in Latin America that have similar characteristics. In the case of Indonesia, compared to the financial crisis in 1997, the latest financial crisis does not directly affect its economic conditions. As the financial crisis hit Indonesia through the trade channel as seen in the export-oriented industries which experienced a sharp contraction. Nonetheless, in general, so far Indonesia has only endured a relatively moderate impact from the global financial crisis (Thee 2012, 126). ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 Argentina, Indonesia, and Spain are all members of the G-20. Argentina and Indonesia are seen as developing countries from a global perspective based on their economic performance. In terms of the proportion of countries, the two countries share similar characteristics as the highest population countries compared to their neighbouring countries and also as leading countries in their region in terms of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The two countries also play a major role in the integration of their regional cooperation. Indonesia is one of the founding member countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations Over the last few decades, we have seen an increase in academic writing around the topic of international economic cooperation. International economic cooperation takes various forms. One of them is international trade which also commonly called foreign trade (Hirschman 1980;Goldstein and Khan 1985;Helpman 1999). David Ricardo as a prominent figure on the topic of international trade provides a basic understanding of how to approach the term. Ricardo saw trade between nations as a cornerstone of economic relations between countries.
Free trade is further aimed at being able to unite the nations of the world as a single interest and interaction (Ricardo 1821, 4).
Koesnadi Kartasasmita also argued about the importance of international cooperation, according to him "international cooperation in the international community is a must, due to interdependence relations and the increasing complexity of human life in the international community" (Kartasasmita 1987, 20). In line with that, Panglaykim explained that international trade is an important aspect of carrying out international economic cooperation where according to him the activities of international economic cooperation itself include all economic activities carried out between countries and individuals from one ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 country to other countries. These economic activities entail two important aspects, namely trade and investment (Panglaykim 1984, 1).

METHODS
The objective of this essay is to examine and compare the bilateral relations maintained between Spain and Argentina compared to Spain and Indonesia in the field of economic cooperation mainly, but not limited to, the trade and investment sectors within the period of 2008-2017. This way, it will showcase the trends in the past decade after the financial crisis in 2008. The analysis of the essay will be carried out and elaborated in two ways by using quantitative methods of descriptive statistical analysis and Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat Analysis (SWOT) analysis. This analysis uses analysis of research data and statistical calculations. The quantitative method of descriptive statistical analysis is done by using various techniques to collect information such as conducting literature studies on various written sources as well as statistical analysis and reports from related agencies in the economic sector.
The SWOT analysis allows a unique comparative lens to identify similarities and differences in terms of the main dynamics at play in the bilateral relations between Argentina and Spain as well as between Indonesia and Spain.
This essay will identify strengths and weaknesses, along with opportunities and threats to their bilateral economic relationship. The SWOT framework offers a more systematic and analytical examination to measure past conditions and future potential of a cooperative relationship between countries, including in the economic field. Furthermore, the results of the SWOT analysis will be used to determine future strategies to overcome weaknesses and threats by taking advantage of strengths and opportunities (Gasparini 2010, 1;Sergunin and Konyshev 2016, 2) The essay begins by providing a general overview of the country profiles of Argentina and Indonesia which encompasses their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), total population, and unemployment rates as well as their economic relations with Spain. It then compares trade and investment volumes after the latest financial crisis. In comparing the development of economic cooperation that ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 has been established between Spain and Argentina to Spain and Indonesia, it will closely look at the trend panel that covers from 2008-2017.

Argentina's Profile
Argentina is one of the highest countries in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Latin America. It ranks in the top three just after Chile and Uruguay, followed by Brazil and Colombia.

Trade and Investment
In 2008, trade between Argentina and Spain reached its highest peak with a trade turnover of US$ 4.5 billion. However, this did not last long because the value of mutual turnover between the two countries continued to decline to reach US$ 3.  Argentina's main export commodity, followed by vehicles and cereals. Whereas ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 fish occupies the 8th position out of 10 of Argentina's main export commodities to its trading partner.  In 2009, Spain became the first largest investor in Argentina followed by the USA, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Chile, accounting for around 28%, 17%, 9%, 5%, and 5% respectively (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, 2010). As shown in figure 8 and 9, we can compare the total amount of investment coming to Argentina (inward) was always higher compared to Argentina's investment to other countries (outward).

Figure 9. Spanish FDI to Argentina (in Euro Thousand)
Source: datainvex.comercio.es ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 As for the total amount of Spanish investment in Argentina, the highest value was in 2011 which reached 170.7 USD million of the total 10.8 USD billion. However, since 2012 the amount of investment has decreased significantly and continued for the next three years before finally increasing again in 2015. Spanish companies that mostly invested in Argentina belong to energy, banking, insurance, and telecommunications (Curci and Cardoza 2009, 29-46).

Indonesia's Profile
Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world, with a population of 265 million people, and the fifteenth economy, which according to analysts will become the fifth by 2030. Indonesia is among the highest countries regarding its economic performance. Based on the graphs, we can clearly see that its GDP has   sector. Moreover, Indonesia is identified by Spain as its natural partner and has called Indonesia one of the priority countries in its foreign relations with the Asian region (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia 2011).

Trade and Investment
The  Although Indonesia is not included as Spain's main trading partner, as we can observe from the chart below, on the contrary, the EU is in the fourth position as Indonesia's main trading partner. Accordingly, Spain is actually ranked fourteenth place among Indonesia's export partners that buys coal, copper, palm oil, natural rubber, and electronics.   As shown in figure 16, similarly to Argentina, we can also see that the total amount of investment entering Indonesia (inward) is always higher than Indonesia's investment to other countries (outward). This shows that Indonesia still needs more investment coming into the country in various sectors.

Figure 17. Total project and investment from Spain to Indonesia
Source: Bkpm, 2017. ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 In terms of Spain's investment in Indonesia, it is considered that it has not yet reached its true potential because there are still many opportunities to continue to grow. Within a period of six years (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015), Spanish investment in Indonesia has only reached US$118.6 million in 136 projects, mainly in the construction, chemical and pharmaceutical, transportation, logistics, storage, and communications sectors, most of which are located in Java and Bali (Antara News 2011).

Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat Analysis
In this section, this paper will present a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat  Both Indonesia and Spain are members of the G-20. In 2018, it counts as sixty years of good diplomatic relations with an intensive state visit. In addition to that, positive progress was also made in political, economic, educational, cultural, and defence cooperation throughout this time. So far, the balance of trade is mostly in favour of Indonesia.

Argentina-Spain
As for the weakness, Argentina is still having to face the trade barrier with Spain as their trade partner. Moreover, distance also becomes one of the inherent obstacles to trade activities. The high cost is still being imposed on both countries.
Argentine protectionist barriers, as well as, worsened economic relations because of the numerous restrictions such as the nationalisation of YPF in April 2012, followed by the denunciation of the Double Taxation Agreement between Argentina and Spain.
Furthermore, there are some limitations in trade with Latin America, especially instability in economic policy and legal uncertainty for foreign investment. Exchange rate ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 Argentina and Indonesia almost have similar characteristics in terms of their relations with Spain. However, in terms of their economic performance, these two countries are having a huge gap in their GDP level. Indonesia is one step forward in its economic development compared to Argentina. As for trade with Spain, Indonesia and Argentina both have a surplus for their trade with Spain. However, in terms of investment, the Spanish investment in Argentina is bigger compared to Indonesia.
volatility, infrastructure problems, and the need to have local partners are other factors that influence economic relations between Spain and its partners in the region.

Indonesia-Spain
Likewise, Indonesia also suffers from the high cost and trade barrier with Spain as its trade partner. The distance between countries is relatively far away. The trade and investment volume of both countries is also considered relatively small. In addition to that, language and cultural differences are seen as one of the obstacles of the economic relations between Indonesia and Spain particularly for Indonesian exporters in trade sectors compared to Argentina and Spain who both speak Spanish. Furthermore, based on the aforementioned discussion, it portrays that Spain really maintains its economic relations with its neighbouring countries by relying mostly on the European Union Countries. France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium are still the main and major trade partners of Spain.

Argentina-Spain
In April 2018, after having an official visit from the Spanish Prime Minister for the first time in eleven years, both Argentina and Spain tried to normalise their bilateral relations, especially in their trade deal and investment sector as Spain is Argentina's second-largest investor (Blázquez and Sebastián 2004). It was seen as a good opportunity for both parties to strengthen their bilateral economic

Argentina-Spain
The economic crisis in Argentina back in 2002 was seen as a threat as it affected the economic growth of Spain in terms of its GDP would have risen by around 0.8%. It proves the interdependence of both countries in the economic sphere (Macri 2018).

Indonesia-Spain
There are still many opportunities for both Indonesia and Spain in terms of their economic relations in trade and investment. It can be seen from the number of investments coming in from Spain that this continues to increase, this is also expected to open up opportunities for an increase in the number of projects that can be realised.
relations. In terms of the security and defence sector, terrorism is the only issue that may occur in which Spain and Indonesia already have a military-engagement programme for their military pact (Parameswaran 2018).
Reflecting on the aforementioned finding, several strategies that can be implemented by Argentina and Indonesia regarding their bilateral cooperation with Spain, particularly in the field of trade and investment are as follows: 1. Trade Apart from both Argentina and Indonesia which continue to experience a surplus in their bilateral trade with Spain, their trade turnover is considered relatively small. To overcome this, firstly, this can be done through market penetration (Hutabarat 2017, 96). Penetration into Spain requires cooperation with local business partners in the target market. Technically, local business partners certainly have more control over the strategy, have resources, and are supported by a better, more spread out and efficient distribution network to facilitate consumer access to products from Argentina and Indonesia. Argentina can also maximise its advantages of speaking the same language and try to find local partners in Spain. Through collaboration with local partners, marketing strategies and distribution networks can be built. Thus, local consumers can easily access and obtain these products at more affordable prices. This in turn will increase the competitiveness of a product in the market.
In addition to the trade show exhibitions, the current digital era provides flexibility for promotions through various online media. At the same time, Indonesia can also take advantage of the advertising marketing strategy in Indonesian films which have started to receive attention on the international stage as a means of promoting Indonesian products. This could be used to overcome the language and cultural differences are seen as one of the obstacles of the economic relations between Indonesia and Spain particularly for Indonesian exporters in trade sectors compared to Argentina and Spain who both speak Spanish.

Investment
On the one hand, as previously mentioned, Spanish investment is mostly channelled into services such as energy, telecommunications, infrastructure, banking, and oil and gas extraction. Argentina has also set energy and infrastructure as its investment priority sectors (United States Government 2021). Compared to Spain and Indonesia ISSN: 2987-6958 DOI: 10.36080/jsgs.v1i1.3 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 Indonesia can prioritise encouraging investment inflows from Spain in these priority investment sectors. On the other hand, Argentina and Indonesia must improve the investment climate in their respective countries to be able to attract investors from Spain to invest in various projects including infrastructure development. Furthermore, other efforts that can also be taken into consideration are to increase investment promotion by collaborating with state representatives in Spain (embassies and consulates general) and other related investment promotion centre institutions.

CONCLUSION
Economic bilateral relations between Indonesia and Spain are still less dynamic compared to the economic bilateral relations established between Argentina and Spain. The trade turnover between Argentina and Spain is still much higher compared to Indonesia and Spain with its peak reaching US$ 4.5 Billion in 2008 whereas the trade turnover between Indonesia and Spain only reached US$ 1.9 Billion. In 2017, the trade turnover between Indonesia and Spain only reached US$ 2.5 Billion compared to Argentina and Spain's US$3.2 Billion in the same year. Argentina is seen as the main trade partner for Spain whereas Indonesia is only seen as a strategic partner in trade. Both Argentina and Indonesia share similarities in their main export commodities such as mineral fuels including oil, animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes, vehicles and gems, and precious metals. As for the main import commodities, both are having similarities in commodities such as mineral fuels including oil, machinery including computers, electrical machinery, equipment, plastics, plastic articles, vehicles, and organic chemicals. The strategies that can be carried out by Argentina and Indonesia in increasing trade turnover with their trading partner Spain include market penetration, trade agreements, and increased trade promotion. In terms of investment, Spain is the biggest investor in Argentina whereas in Indonesia the amount of investment coming from Spain is still very small. As for increasing the amount of incoming foreign investment to Indonesia and Argentina from Spain, the strategies that can be taken into consideration are improving the investment climate and increasing investment promotion.