Indonesia Eyes Wider Regulatory Pact with China to Boost Health, Food Safety

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – Indonesia is pushing to renew and expand its regulatory cooperation with China, positioning the partnership as a framework for faster access to medicines, vaccines, and advanced therapies while strengthening oversight across health and food sectors.

The Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) is advancing efforts to broaden regulatory collaboration with China, aiming to ensure that medicines, vaccines, natural products, cosmetics, and processed foods meet international standards of safety and quality.

BPOM Head Taruna Ikrar said in Jakarta on Monday, August 10, 2026, that closer collaboration is essential to align trade and industry with stronger oversight. “Indonesia and China have strong relations in pharmaceuticals and food," he said, as quoted by Antara.

"We want to make sure these ties go hand in hand with regulatory systems, so the public receives products that are safe, effective, and of high quality,” he added.

China remains a strategic partner, supplying active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, and around 30 percent of Indonesia’s imports of natural medicines, while also serving as a major player in processed food trade.

Talks with Chinese Ambassador Wang Lutong focused on renewing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between BPOM and China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), which expired in June 2024.

The renewal is expected to expand into broader areas, including regulation of biological products, digital regulatory technologies, and collaborative approaches such as regulatory reliance and collaborative review.

Taruna emphasized that the MoU should serve as a framework for information exchange, capacity building, and expert collaboration.

“The renewal of the BPOM-NMPA MoU is not just an extension of existing cooperation. It is a momentum to build wider, concrete regulatory collaboration that can respond to technological developments and the needs of the health industry,” he said.

Ambassador Wang welcomed the initiative, noting China’s interest in investment and technology transfer for medical devices in Indonesia.

“We also want to explore the possibility of establishing factories here. We are keen to look into that,” he remarked, pledging to help facilitate diplomacy so the agreement can be finalized quickly.

The partnership highlights Indonesia’s effort to strengthen its regulatory clarity while enhancing human resource capacity in drug and food supervision.

It also underscores the role of regulatory diplomacy in advancing pharmaceutical cooperation, food safety standards, and health technology transfer between the two countries. ***