Political tension keeping foreigners from Jakarta Fair
Political tension keeping foreigners from Jakarta Fair
JAKARTA (JP): The current political tension has discouraged
foreigners from participating in the forthcoming one-month-long
Jakarta Fair that is due to open on Friday, an executive said on
Wednesday.
"Taiwan will not join this year's fair because the political
situation is still not conducive," corporate secretary of the
fair's organizer Jakarta International Trade fair (JITF) Nugroho
S. Aditomo said.
Nugroho said Taiwan joined the fair last year and even set up
a special booth to display products.
He said Iran, Malaysia, Brunei and South Korea have confirmed
their participation in the fair, Antara reported.
He did not mentioned the number of foreign participants that
took part in last year's fair.
The annual fair, held in the defunct Kemayoran airport,
Central Jakarta, to celebrate the city's 474th anniversary, will
be inaugurated by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Despite political tension and frequent demonstrations in the
city, Nugroho said the fair will still attract a large number of
local participants.
"I thing (local) business people are getting used to
demonstrations. They should develop their business despite these
rallies," he said.
He said many informal and street vendors will also take part
in the fair.
"Among the 1,500 participants, some 300 of them are informal
traders and street vendors," Nugroho said.
Nugroho said the fair hoped business transactions worth Rp 150
billion (US$13.6 million) could be reached. The total sum of last
year's business transactions reached Rp 120 billion.
As many as 21 provinces from Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and
Sulawesi, have expressed their readiness to join the fair and
will exhibit their local products, according to Nugroho.
Three provinces, Maluku, Irian Jaya and Bali, have sent
letters to the organizers, saying that they will not join the
event.
"Bali has its own art and trade fair this month," he said.
He said the number of visitors is expected to reach 1.7
million people, exceeding last year's 1.4 million people.
The fair organizers said earlier that this year's event will
be more focused toward entertainment than business in order to
attract more visitors.
A total of 128 concerts, with 155 artists participating, will
be performed. They will be organized by noted musician Harry
Rusli.
Among top artists to perform at the event include The Fly,
Pas, Base Jam, Iis Dahlia, Slank, GIGI, Jamrud, Wayang, Cici
Faramida, Nini Karlina, Bunglon and Nugie. (jun)