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)