Mari to visit Turkey, Egypt and Iran
Mari to visit Turkey, Egypt and Iran
Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Trade Mari E. Pangestu is to lead a delegation that
will visit Turkey, Egypt and Iran next week, aiming to bolster
bilateral relations in the areas of trade, investment, technology
and the handling of the illegal trade in narcotics.
The ministry's director general for international trade
cooperation Herry Soetanto said the trip, which will run June 15-
22, aimed to form bilateral joint commissions with each of the
three countries. Mari would also sign a number protocols and MOUs
with her counterparts.
"Aside from signing the MOUs, she will also conduct bilateral
talks as well as meet with the local private sector," Herry said
on Tuesday.
In Turkey, Mari is scheduled to sign at least three protocols
and MOUs: a cooperation protocol between the National Agency for
Export Development (Nafed) and Turkey's trade promotion agency; a
protocol on technical cooperation between both countries'
standardization institutions; and a cooperation agreement between
the Batam Free Trade Zone authority with Turkey's FTZ development
agency.
In Egypt, meanwhile, the two countries will finalize a draft
of an MOU for cooperation in animal health and quarantine.
In Iran, the trade minister is expected to sign four MOUs on
cooperation in customs and narcotics trade prevention, a
framework agreement on comprehensive trade and economic
partnership, and on promoting investment.
Herry said the relationships were still at the level of
boosting bilateral trade and investment, and were still a long
way from forming bilateral free trade relationships.
Earlier this year, the ministry revealed that the nation's
businesspeople were somewhat reluctant to expand their businesses
into the Middle East and Africa.
It said big firms in the country considered the cost of
shipping goods to Africa uneconomical considering the small
market size. Meanwhile, for small and medium enterprises, Africa
was too far away, making it economically unfeasible.
"Trade with Africa has not been a priority in the past given
the small volume of trade, lack of information and familiarity,
distance, lack of direct transportation links and lack of
supporting facilities, such as trade financing," Mari said.
But she said the government had started to facilitate a
partnership with the private sector to overcome these obstacles
by providing more information, conducting market research and
encouraging the pooling of exports in order to produce a viable
volume of trade.
The Middle East is a highly potential source for investment
capital.
Only recently, a group of Middle East investors, spearheaded
by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), said that they were
considering investing in the nation's 10 agricultural priority
projects, which the government had put on offer in its recent
visit to the oil-rich region, to the tune of US$1.57 billion.