Export gallery to open in Denpasar

JAKARTA (JP): A Jakarta-based trading company, PT Mega Milenia, will open the Indonesian Export Gallery (IEG) in Denpasar, Bali, which will display a wide range of handicrafts and furniture, on Saturday.

Chairman of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin Jaya), Pungky Bambang Purwadi, said on Thursday that about 100 small and medium-scale companies would display their products in the permanent exhibition center.

"The gallery will run as an integrated promotion center which will connect producers and potential buyers through online computer networks with Kadin Jaya and the World Trade Center in Jakarta," Pungky said.

He said Denpasar was chosen as the first site for the IEG because Bali was a famed tourist destination.

"We are looking for the possibility of opening similar exhibition galleries in other cities in cooperation with local chambers of commerce," Pungky added.

IEG's operational manager Khozin told The Jakarta Post that his company also planned to open exhibition galleries in Jakarta and Batam Island.

Mega director Yudianto Tri said an exhibitor in the Bali gallery was charged a monthly rental of only Rp 390,000 (US$60) per square meter.

Yudianto said IEG would act as mediator between exporters and foreign buyers, and would cooperate with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, World Trade Center and other trading associations to gather and disseminate market information.

"But the exhibitors in the gallery will conduct the transactions themselves," he added.

About 40 percent of the exporters taking part in the Bali gallery are from Jakarta. The remainder are from Sumatra, Central Java, Kalimantan and other provinces in eastern Indonesia. (01)