RI to boost regional trade

RI to boost regional trade

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): To reduce its growing trade deficit,
Indonesia said yesterday it would trim commerce with richer
countries and turn to Southeast Asian markets.

Iman Taufik, Indonesia's ambassador to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, said his crisis-hit country was spending
too much on capital goods, or the component goods used for
building larger products, from developed countries.

"This may be one of our problems in the past," Iman was quoted
as saying by the Bernama news agency. "Our deficit in capital
goods, electronic and automotive (sectors) from the North
countries amounted to US$40 billion (in 1995), which we have to
reduce."

Iman, who is visiting Kuala Lumpur, said Indonesia planned to
buy more from its ASEAN "brothers," including more car parts from
Malaysia.

Other Southeast Asian nations also have suffered from
declining currencies.