Mandiri opens Shanghai office

JAKARTA: Bank Mandiri opened on Wednesday a representative office in China's major business city of Shanghai to help facilitate and promote increasing trade between Indonesia and China.

"Bank Mandiri has many corporate and individual customers interested in expanding their businesses to China," president ECW Neloe said. "We hope the new representative office will be able to fulfill their needs toward this end by providing them with information on various business, trade and investment opportunities in that country."

Since 1998, China has been the third largest investor in Indonesia, after the United Kingdom and Singapore. The country has also been Indonesia's fourth largest trade partner, after the United States, Japan and Singapore.

Between 1999 and 2003, Indonesia's exports to China saw an average growth of 16.8 percent per annum. During the first 10 months of 2003 alone, its value reached US$3.04 billion. China's exports to Indonesia, meanwhile, recorded $2.45 billion during the same period, with a total trade value of $ 5.49 billion between the two countries. -- JP