Singapore's trade data disclosure disappoints RI
Singapore's trade data disclosure disappoints RI
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Jakarta
Singapore's unprecedented disclosure last week of trade data
with Indonesia has failed to shed light on the two countries'
commerce in smuggled goods, officials said on Sunday.
Singapore on Jan. 21 published its statistics on bilateral
trade with Indonesia for the first time, which were kept a well-
guarded secret during the three-decade rule of former president
Suharto (1966 to 1998), presumably to avoid mutual embarrassment
over statistical discrepancies due to massive smuggling.
Indonesian officials, however, are still unhappy with
Singapore's trade statistics because they have failed to provide
comparative figures on a product-by-product comparative basis for
2002 and 2003, according to senior Indonesian trade officials.
"The data is not as detailed as we want," said Pos Hutabarat,
director general of international cooperation at Indonesia's
Ministry of Trade and Industry.
"They have adopted a different system on recording the
commodity imports than Indonesia," said Hutabarat, who said he
would raise the issue with Singapore soon.
Trade ministry officials who have seen the trade data, said it
was compiled in such a way as to make comparisons impossible.
"It's like trying to compare apples to oranges," said a high-
ranking Indonesian trade official.
Current Indonesian Minister of Trade and Industry Rini
Suwandhi, last year demanded that Singapore end the secrecy and
reveal their bilateral trade statistics on an annual basis to
help government efforts to crack down on rampant smuggling
between the two countries.
Government sources estimate that some US$4 billion worth of
Indonesian goods are smuggled to Singapore annually.
While the recently released trade statistics, which put
bilateral trade between the two neighbors at S$26.2 billion for
2003, have provided the Indonesian side with some data to compare
to their exports to Singapore, they have been compiled in such a
way to make year-on-year comparisons confusing.
For instance, the value of paper and paperboard imports from
Indonesia was reported for 2002 but not for 2003, while coffee
bean imports for 2003 but not 2002.
All 104 imports listed do not have comparative figures for
2002 and 2003.
"Indonesia is asking for transparency and not getting it from
Mr. Clean," said a senior Indonesian trade official.
Singapore, a tiny city-state of 4 million people, has long
prided itself on its transparent governance and its efficient,
well-documented customs and trade procedures.