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.