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)