Enhancing promotion to deal with five percent target of 2003

Enhancing promotion to deal with five percent target of 2003
export

Sari P. Setiogi
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The National Agency for Export Development (BPEN) will
intensify its promotional activities abroad this year to support
government aims to increase exports by 5 percent.

To facilitate its intensified campaign, BPEN's Rp 45 billion
(US$5 million) budget in 2002 would be increased by 50 percent in
2003, BPEN chairwoman Diah Maulida said Tuesday.

"We hope the country's export revenue will increase to more
than $47 billion this year from around $45 billion estimated for
2002."

Indonesia's exports during the first 11 months of last year
reached $41.08 billion, up 1.82 percent from US$40.33 billion in
the same period of 2001.

Diah said that this year, BPEN would coordinate 53 trade
promotion activities in various countries and open four new
Indonesian Trade Promotion Centers (ITPC) -- in Guang Zhou
(China), Hamburg (Germany), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Sao
Paulo (Brazil).

"For comparison, we organized only 40 exhibitions and opened
an ITPC in Budapest, Hungary, last year," she said.

She said the planned trade promotion activities would consist
of 49 Indonesian trade exhibitions and four international trade
fairs, namely the Dubai International Trade Fair 2003 in May, the
California Gift Show in July, the Tokyo Gift Show in September
and Thessaloniki in Greece, also in September.

"With these promotion activities, we aim to expand our
country's exports to non-traditional markets in Africa, the
Middle East and South America while sustaining sales in
traditional markets in North America and Europe," she said.

Indonesia's exports to non-traditional markets only accounted
for about 8 percent of its total exports worldwide, she said.

She said BPEN, which is an affiliate of the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, would also send trade delegations to various
countries in America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

During the promotion activities, the delegations would
intensify the promotion of the country's most competitive
commodities, particularly those from the agricultural sector,
such as crude palm oil, cocoa, coffee and fishery produce, she
said.