50 Finnish companies to join trade exhibition
JAKARTA (JP): Around 50 Finnish companies will participate in a three-day trade exhibition scheduled to open today at the Jakarta Hilton Convention Center.
The expo, called the Finnish-Indonesian Trade Fair (Finindo), is jointly organized by an international association of students in economics, business and management, L'Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (Aiesec), which has a representative office at the University of Indonesia here.
The commercial counselor of the Finnish embassy, Markku Ranin, told reporters yesterday that the companies participating in the fair operate in property, furniture, food and beverages, health- care equipment manufacturing, engineering, construction, oil and gas exploration, automotive, ship building, electronics and general machinery.
The expo is scheduled to be opened by the commissioner of the advisor board of the Aiesec, Aburizal Bakrie, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).
Ranin said the Finnish firms will introduce highly developed technology in the pulp and paper industry during the fair.
Machinery
"Most of Indonesia's major pulp, paper and wood manufacturing companies, including Gudang Garam, use Finnish processing machinery," he said.
Gudang Garam, a major clove-blended cigarette producer, in cooperation with a Finnish company, is constructing a project to produce liquid packaging boards for food and beverage canning in Kediri, East Java, he said.
Another Finnish company, Enso Gutzett, in cooperation with Gudang Garam and the state-owned forestry company PT Inhutani III, is also now developing a 130,000-hectare industrial forest for pulp and paper manufacturing in West Kalimantan with an investment of US$100 million, he said.
The three parties will also set up a pulp plant with an investment of $600 million for producing some 400,000 tons of pulp per year.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Indonesia's exports to Finland increased to $18.25 million last year from $17.05 million in 1992, while its imports from Finland rose to $252.99 million from $105.83 million.
Finnish cumulative investments in Indonesia during the period of 1967 to Feb. 15, 1994, reached $62 million.
Dini Widiastuti, Aiesec's vice president for external relations, said that Aiesec also plans to hold a similar fair in Helsinki in March next year, in which a dozen Indonesian companies will participate in.
Aiesec, based in Brussels, Belgium, has its committee office in Indonesia to cover students from the University of Indonesia, University of Brawijaya in Malang of East Java, University of Padjadjaran in Bandung of West Java, University of Diponegoro in Semarang of Central Java and University of Andalas in Padang of West Sumatra. (fhp)