Navigating Asymmetric Interdependence: Actor Typology and Sectoral Preferences in East Java’s Economic Paradiplomacy (2024–2025)

Abstract

Paradiplomacy has emerged as a useful tool employed by subnational governments in addressing the demands and possibilities of interdependence in today’s world. Thus, this research seeks to examine the typology of international actors, patterns of sectoral preferences, and dimensions of interdependence affecting the economic paradiplomacy of East Java province during the period of 2024-2025. By applying a qualitative approach and analyzing documents such as the LKPJ of East Java governor and BPS statistics, this paper is able to establish patterns of global economic engagement in terms of trade and foreign investments in East Java. The findings reveal that the economic paradiplomacy of the region is still dominated by the involvement of East Java with other countries under the state paradigm, especially with Switzerland, China, and the United States. Furthermore, sectoral preferences are focused on traditional comparative advantage in terms of the types of goods traded, namely jewelry, vegetable oils, copper, wood products, and fisheries. As a result, the motives behind the economic paradiplomacy of East Java are resource seeking, efficiency seeking, and market seeking of international actors. Nevertheless, the interdependence of East Java does not create balanced gains but only asymmetric interdependence and dependency of East Java especially on its economic relationship with China, causing a huge trade deficit estimated at around US$4 billion because of its dependency on foreign industrial machinery and technologies.