Singapore publishes RI trade data for first time

Singapore publishes RI trade data for first time

Yeoh En-Lai, Associated Press, Singapore

For the first time in 30 years, Singapore released figures on
Wednesday representing its trade with Indonesia, seven months
after its largest neighbor questioned Singapore's policy for
withholding the figures.

Trade between Singapore and Indonesia was worth S$26.2 billion
(US$15.11 billion) in 2003, making Indonesia its seventh-largest
trading partner, the island nation's trade promotion body
International Enterprise Singapore said in a statement.

The statement was the first on the neighbors' bilateral trade
since 1974 when Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, and
former Indonesian president Soeharto reached a "mutual
understanding" to keep the figures secret.

The arrangement continued after Suharto was removed as
president in 1998, Singapore's Trade and Industry Ministry said
in a statement in July without explaining the reasons for the
secrecy.

But last June, Indonesian Minister of Industry and Trade Rini
Soewandi said there were marked discrepancies between trade data
exchanged between the two nations and said that Singapore should
make its information public.

By putting the trade data in the open, it would help the huge
archipelago curb smuggling and illegal exports of its natural
resources, she said.

In response, Singapore said that every year it handed
information to "key Indonesian ministers" and said "Indonesia was
free to publish the data publicly."

Singapore imported S$14.5 billion worth of Indonesian goods in
2003, with petroleum products and manufacturing components
comprising the bulk, the statement said. Trade with Indonesia
made up about 5.5 percent of the S$473.9 billion of goods that
Singapore sold and bought last year.

Key imports from Indonesia included telecommunications
equipment, refined petroleum products as well as parts of office
and data processing machines. Key exports to Indonesia were
electrical machinery, petroleum products and telecommunications
apparatus, International Enterprise Singapore said.ineral Fuels