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ANT/Egypt opens market for Indonesian products
"I was invited by the Egyptian authorities and they expressed admiration at Indonesia, which can produce handicrafts from the source of a variety of materials, and that`s why they expressed readiness to accept all our SME products," said Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Sjarifuddin Hasan, in Jakarta, this weekend.
He said the Egyptian government`s commitment to open its markets for Indonesian SME products is a great advantage because Egypt is a gateway to European countries and Africa.
Indonesia and Egypt also have agreed to organize an exhibition of SME products produced by two countries.
"In real term, the `business to business` relationship between Indonesian furniture companies has been established where businessmen of nations cooperate to jointly produce and market the products," said the Minister.
Previously, the Indonesian minister has signed a joint memorandum of understanding on June 13, 2010 with the Minister of International Relations and Industry of Egypt concerning the management of Nile water hyacinth to produce handicrafts.
Indonesia will provide training and technical assistance concerning preservation of the environment with the utilization of water hyacinth to produce handicrafts.
The cooperation departed from the fact that the water hyacinth in the Nile has become a most disturbing pest while the river concerns the interest of many Egyptian people.
"We will send water hyacinth businessmen to train them and the compensation is that they will open their market for Indonesian products," said the Minister.
The Egyptian government also said it wanted to learn from Indonesia on how to empower cooperatives and SMEs in the country.(*)
