Guang Xi seeks stronger ties with Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Guang Xi, an autonomous region in China, hopes to improve trade ties with Indonesia by sending a delegation to Jakarta next week.
The delegation will consist of 500 business representatives including the governor of Guang Xi, which is located on the south-western tip of China on the Gulf of Tonkin.
The backbone of the region's economy is tourism, mining and agriculture, which accounts for 30 percent of gross domestic products (GDP).
According to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Indonesia's trade balance with Guang Xi stood at US$70 million last year, double the previous year.
"By strengthening cooperation with the area, we hope to increase that figure by 50 percent," Kadin's Eddy W. Shakti said on Thursday.
Last year, Guang Xi exported lead and glass to Indonesia, and imported goods from Indonesia through the neighboring Ghuang Zhou province and Hong Kong.
"With this cooperation, the province will directly import from Indonesia," Eddy said, adding that the provincial government of Guang Xi could import up to three million tons of coal per annum from Indonesia to help meet its yearly needs of 10 million tons.
Guang Xi's business community will put their products on display during the China Guang Xi Commodity Exhibition, from April 7 to April 10 at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, North Jakarta.
The delegation members are expected to sign memorandums of understanding on future investments in Indonesia during the opening ceremony for the visit at the Shangri-la Hotel in Jakarta.
"Most of the business deals offered will be in the field of transportation infrastructure, the chemical industry, farming machinery and fisheries," Guang Xi's director of foreign trade at the department of commerce, Yuanlong Ding, said.
Responding to concerns that the trade fair will not help balance the already large trade imbalance between China and Indonesia, Eddy said Indonesian businesses should not just import Chinese products, but should learn from Chinese technology. (003)