Autralian firm to plug Indonesia's handicraft exports

Autralian firm to plug Indonesia's handicraft exports

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Export Supporting Board has signed
an agreement with Australian joint venture PT Out of Asia to
boost the country's handicraft exports.

The board's executive director, Faridz Soewardi, said on
Tuesday that under the agreement, his agency would finance the
production of handicraft by small firms.

Yogyakarta-based PT Out of Asia would purchase the
handicrafts, help producers to obtain orders from foreign buyers
and design the products to meet foreign buyers' tastes.

"We and PT Out of Asia will jointly help handicraft producers
to improve the quality of their products and their financial
management," he said.

Faridz said his agency would provide working capital loans of
Rp 500 million (US$62,500) to at least 500 handicraftmakers.

PT Out of Asia president Warwick Purser said his company was
currently working with 150 handicraft producing groups in
Yogyakarta, West, Central and East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

"Indonesia has great potential to become the world's biggest
exporter of handicraft products. But first of all, the quality
and the design should be improved to meet buyers' tastes," he
said.

He said handicrafts made from bamboo and terracotta were
increasingly popular on the international market.

"But Indonesia is facing tight competition from China and
other Asian countries."

He said his company sold between 300,000 to 400,000 units of
handicraft products per month. The biggest markets were European
countries, the United States, Japan and Australia. (gis)