RI to buy rice from Egypt

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will buy 400,000 metric tons of rice from Egypt through soft loans from the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo said on Monday.

The embassy's commercial attach Husin Bagis told Antara news agency that the memorandum of understanding on the rice import would be signed by Minister of Industry and Trade Rahardi Ramelan during his three-day visit to Cairo which started Monday.

Rahardi, who is also the chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), is scheduled to meet Egyptian economic minister Yossef Boutron Ghali and others top economic officials during his visit, Husin said.

Last month, Rahardi said Indonesia planned to buy between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of rice from Egypt and Pakistan through US$190 million in IDB soft loans. (gis)