New SME exhibition center opened

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a bid to help promote the products of small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), the Ministry of Industry and Trade has set up an exhibition center in the Pasar Gambir area of Kemayoran, Jakarta.

The move is part of efforts to help increase the country's non-oil and gas exports mainly from the SME sector.

"I hope the SME sector can contribute to the increase in the non-oil and gas exports so we can meet this year's target of 5 percent higher than in 2002," Minister of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi said.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the country's non-oil and gas exports increased by 2.8 percent to US$44.9 billion in 2002, from $43.7 billion in 2001.

Rini acknowledged that the SME sector could play an important role in pushing the country's economic growth and creating employment.

She said that the government would continue to seek ways to help the SMEs to win more markets overseas.

One way is through more promotional activities.

The National Agency for Export Development (BPEN) has promised to continue its promotional activities for the products of the SMEs overseas.

BPEN earlier said that it would coordinate 53 trade promotion activities in various countries and open four new Indonesian Trade Promotion Centers (ITPC) -- in Guang Zhou (China), Hamburg (Germany), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).