50 Finnish companies to join trade exhibition
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)