Indonesia's non-oil exports recover: Minister
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)