Canadian minister to visit RI

Canadian minister to visit RI

JAKARTA (JP): Canadian Minister for International Trade Roy MacLaren is scheduled to arrive here on Monday for a two-day visit to seek opportunities to increase trade and investment cooperation with Indonesia.

The Canadian embassy announced yesterday that MacLaren's visit will be part of his trip to Southeast Asia ahead of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Osaka, Japan, later next week.

Indonesia and Canada both belong to the 18-member APEC forum.

The delegation of businesspeople accompanying MacLaren includes the chief executives and senior officers of 12 of Canada's leading corporations, the embassy said in a statement.

The delegates include representatives from the Nova Corporation, Gulf Canada Resources/Asamera Oil, the Asia Power Capital Group, Agra International, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd., SNC-Lavalin, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Klockner Stadler Hurter Inc. and the Canadian government's Export Development Corporation.

MacLaren and his accompanying delegation will meet with senior Indonesian government officials and business executives to discuss cooperation opportunities in trade, investment and the transfer of technology between the two countries.

Indonesia's exports to Canada last year reached US$321.69 million, up by almost 6 percent from $304.18 million in 1993.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's imports from Canada in 1994 were $496.77 million, up by 21 percent from $409.99 million in 1993.

According to the embassy, the two-way trade between Indonesia and Canada is growing by more than 15 percent per annum and is expected to reach C$1.1 billion (US$817.35 million) this year.

Cumulative Canadian investment in Indonesia stands at C$5 billion ($3.72 billion), the embassy said. (pwn)