Indonesia import deals continue, Australia says
Indonesia import deals continue, Australia says
CANBERRA (Dow Jones): Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile said Tuesday that he hasn't heard of any contracts with Australian exporters being canceled by Indonesia.
Vaile said he has seen a lot of comment, particularly in the Indonesian press, by Indonesian importing organizations and businesses about what they might do with contracts with Australian exporters.
In particular, these press reports in the past several weeks have indicated Australian wheat, cotton, sugar and dairy exports to Indonesia will be cut.
Relations between Jakarta and Canberra are under strain over the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor.
"To date, there has been no evidence of any contracts that have been canceled with Australian exporters," Vaile told reporters.
The minister called for sensitivity and understanding of the difficult domestic political circumstances in Indonesia ahead of the presidential election Oct. 20.
He told of establishing new contacts in Indonesia after the election.
Overall, Vaile said he remains "quite positive" about Australia's trade links with Indonesia.
Tourism
Meanwhile, John Morse, chief executive of the Australian Tourism Commission said Tuesday that the number of Indonesian tourists to Australia was likely to fall in coming months,
In answer to a question at a National Press Club address, Morse said there will certainly be a decline in the number of Indonesian visitors, following a deterioration of relations between the two countries over the East Timor crisis.
Morse said that two to three years ago, the commission had real expectations that Indonesia would become Australia's largest inbound tourism market from Asia.
"But with the economic situation and the latest political situation, that's clearly not going to happen," he said.
However, he added that the local tourism industry probably won't suffer significantly from any fall in tourist numbers from Indonesia, as the industry has never relied on just one market.
Many other Asian countries, along with Europe and North America, are showing strong tourism growth to Australia, he said.
"This country can withstand quite adequately any drop-off in business from Indonesia," he said.
The government's Bureau of Statistics reported Monday that the number of tourists from Indonesia in the first eight months of 1999 rose 11 percent to 67,600, from 60,700 in the same period last year.
Total short-term visitor arrivals to Australia in the first eight months of 1999 totaled 2.83 million, up from 2.66 million in the year-earlier period.
Visitors to Australia from Indonesia peaked in calendar 1997 at 160,400, but slumped sharply to 93,000 in 1998 because of the regional economic downturn, the bureau said.