Indonesia's non-oil exports recover: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): The rate of growth of Indonesia's non-oil exports, which declined sharply in 1994, has seen a recovery in the first few months of this year, Minister of Trade Satrio B. Joedono said yesterday.

"The country's non-oil exports during the first quarter of this year increased by 20.8 percent over the same period of last year," he said at the opening of a three-day export forum.

He said that even though Indonesia's non-oil exports increased significantly from US$14.6 billion in 1990 to $30.4 billion in 1994, the rate of their growth declined from 16.2 percent in 1993 to 12.2 percent in 1994.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Indonesia's non-oil exports increased by 16.23 percent, from $23.29 billion in 1992, to $27.07 billion in 1993 and by 12.15 percent, to $30.36 billion, in 1994.

During the first quarter of 1995, non-oil exports rose 20.8 percent to $7.58 billion, from $6.27 billion in the same period of 1994.

However, data from the bureau shows that the growth of non-oil exports reached only 16.26 percent during the first five months of this year. Non-oil exports rose to $12.95 billion in the January-May period, up from $11.14 billion in the corresponding period of 1994.

Joedono acknowledged that achieving the government's target of increasing the country's non-oil exports by an average of 16.8 percent per annum during the current sixth Five-Year Development Plan period would be a great challenge. The current development plan began in April 1994.

He explained that decreases in the exports of major commodities, such as wood and textile products, were the main cause of last year's fall in the growth rate of non-oil exports.

The major commodities accounted for 35 percent of the country's earnings from its total non-oil exports, he said.

He said the decrease in the growth of the country's non-oil exports to Japan, from 31.31 percent in 1993 to a mere 6.79 percent in 1994, was another reason.

Indonesia's non-oil exports to Japan were recorded at $5.49 billion in 1994, as compared WITH $5.14 billion in 1993.

Joedono also told the seminar that Indonesia should make the most of the regionalization of trade, which, he said, may hamper the movement of goods between different regions.

"To benefit from the tendency towards regionalization, we must improve cooperation with members of the regional groupings and use them as gateways for our goods to the groupings," he said.

He referred such regional groupings as the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement area, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and the ASEAN Free Trade Area.

The minister expressed concern over what he said was a lack of market information for small and medium-sized companies which meant, he argued, that they encounter difficulties in selling their products overseas.(kod)