Data on RI exports to S'pore unclear

Data on RI exports to S'pore unclear

JAKARTA (JP): The government still faces difficulty in
calculating actual exports to Singapore because the neighboring
country is still unwilling to issue data on its bilateral trade
with Indonesia, an official says.

A senior trade official at the Indonesian Embassy in
Singapore, Sjabirin M. Bakri, said Saturday that the absence of
Singapore's trade data caused difficulties in calculating the
actual value of Indonesian exports to the neighboring country.

"The data issued by (Indonesia's) Central Bureau of Statistics
(BPS) is the only official data available in calculating the
trade volume between Indonesia and Singapore," he told Antara in
Bandung.

He estimated that the volume of Indonesian exports was much
higher than figures stated by BPS because, he said, a large
amount of smuggled goods were not included.

"It's one of the problems the (Singapore) embassy has to
face," he said.

Sabirin said that another problem the Indonesian embassy in
Singapore faced in promoting Indonesian exports was the lack of
up-to-date business information, such as company profiles,
commodity profiles and trade directories about Indonesian
companies.

Such corporate information was very much needed in promoting
Indonesian exports, he said.

Indonesia's non-oil exports to Singapore face a lot of
competition from Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the
United States and Japan.

Indonesia's export volume reached US$4.6 billion last year,
comprising $732 billion in oil and gas products and $3.9 billion
in non-oil products.

Indonesia's main exports to Singapore are telecommunications
equipment, nonferrous metal, electric machinery, tea, coffee,
cacao, vegetables, fruits, fish and shells. (08)