Export promotion helps small firms

Export promotion helps small firms

JAKARTA (JP): An export promotion drive introduced recently by
the National Agency for Export Development in cooperation with
the United Nations Development Program has helped at least 100
small and medium-scale companies.

NAFED's chief Gusmardi Bustami said here on Thursday that many
of the companies, mostly handicraft producers, have won orders to
sell their products overseas.

"As much as US$623,000 worth of merchandise for export is now
at the final stage of negotiation with foreign buyers," he told
reporters.

He said that the project called "Export Promotion Services for
Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises, which was introduced in
December last year, helped the companies to market their products
overseas.

"Today we are celebrating the success of one of the
enterprises under our supervision," Gusmardi said at the
launching of PT Selaras Putra Mandiri's first container of wooden
furniture to Brussels.

The export promotion project was formed in December 1998 by
the government and has been funded by the UNDP.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade through its NAFED serves as
a coordinator of the project.

This project provides more than 10 consultants who previously
served as Indonesian consuls and heads of Indonesian Trade
Promotion Centers overseas.

Enterprises which have participated in the program are from
Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Bali and North Sumatra.

Enterprises under supervision are those whose products are
handicrafts (61 percent), agricultural products (32 percent),
clothes (6 percent) and motorcycle spare parts (1 percent). (02)