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)