Singapore to make public trade statistics with Indonesia

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a month of wrangling, the governments of Singapore and Indonesia are now seeking to find a solution to settle the dispute over discrepancies in the trade statistics between the two countries.

George Yeo, Singapore's minister for industry and trade, said in a letter dated July 9 that his government would make public the bilateral trade statistics and take firm action against companies involved in illegal trade between the two nations.

"I note the wish of the present Indonesian government that these trade statistic should no longer be given confidentially to the Indonesian side, but instead be published by the Singapore government," Yeo said.

The letter was made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday, in response to Minister of Industry and Trade Rini MS Soewandi letter dated July 7.

Yeo did not specify when Singapore would start publishing the trade statistics.

"As part of Singapore's accession to the HS Convention of the World Customs Organization (WCO), we will be adjusting the presentation of our overall and detailed trade data, including inclusion of data for Indonesia," he said.

In response to Rini's request that Singapore take action against smugglers domiciled in Singapore, Yeo said: "Where there is evidence that Singapore laws have been breached, we will investigate thoroughly and take firm action against the offenders."

The two countries lie across the Straits of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping lane. Indonesian oil and gas, along with its timber and palm oil, often get exported via Singapore.

Yeo, however, turned down a demand from Indonesia to boost cooperation through direct custom links via electronic data exchange.

"Singapore's laws (the Statistics Act and the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act) prohibit the disclosure of information submitted by traders without their express consent," he said.

Rini has also asked Singapore to set up a joint border patrol to curb smuggling, but Singapore has thus far made no response.

On June 10, Rini and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda voiced complaints to the Indonesian press about Singapore's reluctance to reveal comprehensive data on bilateral trade between the two countries.

They complained about the wide discrepancies in the trade data set out in the Singapore Trade Statistics and the figures issued by Indonesia's Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

In the 2002 trade data, for example, Singapore recorded non- oil exports to Indonesia as amounting to US$2.25 billion, compared to the $2.44 billion reported by the BPS.

The Singapore government regularly sends trade data to the Indonesian government in confidential letters. The public speculated that former President Soeharto had deliberately asked Singapore not to publish the data.

However, Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew said in his biography titled From Third World to First, that it was he who asked Soeharto not to publish the data.

Lee wrote that on Nov. 29, 1976, he told Soeharto that he was willing to provide Indonesia with unofficial trade data.

"I agreed to provide him, unofficially, with our trade statistics to help them curtail smuggling, but asked that they should not be made public. He (Soeharto) wanted these trade figures to be published. I explained that as our statistics were different from theirs, publication would cause more misunderstanding. Soeharto was confident he could manage the Indonesian press," Lee wrote.