RI to set up training centers for exporters

RI to set up training centers for exporters

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) plan to set up four regional export training and promotion centers here to help provinces and regencies boost export sales.

Following last year's implementation of regional autonomy, the government hopes to decentralize training and promotion programs for exporters, according to Diah Maulida who heads the National Agency for Export Development (Nafed).

"The centers will provide export training especially for small and medium size enterprises," she said in a press briefing here on Tuesday.

Participants will study inspection procedures and quality control of export commodities, as well as learn about trade exhibitions. The centers will also teach them Japanese for business communication.

Japan is Indonesia's biggest export market after America.

So far Jakarta has been the only place for entrepreneurs to learn about the export business. The center in Jakarta has produced 20,000 alumni since it opened in 1989.

The government established another center in Surabaya, East Java only last September. It is the first out of the four it plans to set up.

The government expects to open three more centers by 2004 in Medan, North Sumatra, Makassar, South Sulawesi and Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

"Participants won't need to come to Jakarta to attend the training sessions, since the teleconference system will solve the distance problem," said Rahayubudi who heads Jakarta's information and export training center.

The government and JICA began work on these centers last July under a program that will last until 2006.

JICA will provide the centers with equipment and will send experts to aid their operation. For its part, Indonesia will provide the centers' training offices as well as fund their operations.

Maulida said the program came in response to Indonesia's declining export revenues, pressured by a weak global market and a poor investment climate at home.