German machine producers look for local distributors

German machine producers look for local distributors

JAKARTA (JP): German machine manufacturers, currently taking part in the five-day trade exhibition at the Jakarta Fairground in Kemayoran here, are looking for Indonesian partners to help market their products.

An economic adviser of the German machinery and plant manufacturers association, Anke Uhlig, said here yesterday that the German companies need Indonesian partners, who would operate as their marketing home-base in the Southeast Asian region.

"We want to expand our market to emerging countries such as members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)," Uhlig said.

Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are members of ASEAN.

Uhlig said that Indonesia is one of the strongest emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, which is now dominated by Japanese and Korean products.

Lexi Sumampow, the German-Indonesia Economic Association's public relations manager, said that the German government encourages companies to increase exports but not to relocate their industrial activities abroad because of Germany's high rate of unemployment.

He said the depreciation period of German goods is generally longer than for those made by other countries.

Seventy small and medium-scale German companies are taking part in the trade fair called Manufacturing Indonesia '95, which closes tomorrow.

"The high number of German exhibitors demonstrates the ever increasing German interest in the Indonesian economy," said Uhlig.

German exports of machinery to Indonesia rose steadily from US$172 million in 1987 to $612 million in 1994.

"In the first half of this year, our deliveries to Indonesia rose by 45 percent to $409 million from the same period of last year," she said. "The exports consisted of prime movers, textile and woodworking machines, printing and paper machinery." (kod)