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.