Trade and industry ministry expects 7% rise in exports
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After growing by 5.2 percent last year, the government targets a 7 percent increase in non-oil and gas exports this year, banking hopes on more robust demands from China -- the world's newest economic giant.
"Last year, we managed to earn US$47.3 billion from our non- oil and gas exports. We expect exports to grow by 7 percent or more this year," Minister of Trade and Industry Rini MS Soewandi said on Wednesday.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Tuesday that the country booked last year a non-oil and gas export value of $47.3 billion, a 5.2 percent increase over 2002 and slightly exceeding the 5 percent target.
Rini added she was optimistic about the target because of the China factor, due to which Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports jumped by 23 percent in 2003 from the previous year.
"This year, we will boost our promotion program in China," she said, without elaborating.
While the United States, Japan and Singapore remained the country's top three export destinations last year, export growth to China was the fastest.
Standing behind the big three, non-oil and gas export to China in 2003 reached $2.69 billion, as against $2.19 billion the year earlier.
Indonesia has been struggling for years to boost export performance, which has been relatively weak in the past couple of years mainly due to the slow global economic recovery and various problems at home.
Stronger exports are essential in order for the country to push economic growth particularly when investment has been scarce.
Net-exports currently contribute slightly above 20 percent of the country's economic growth.
In total, last year's exports stood at $61 billion, marking a rise of 6.8 percent from 2002.
Had the rupiah not kept strengthening, the value of the exports could have even been higher, analysts said. The rupiah has sharply appreciated over the U.S. dollar of late thanks mostly to a combination of the latter's weak footing against other top currencies and fairly positive progress in the macroeconomic fundamentals here.
Throughout 2003, the local currency had strengthened at a range of 5 percent to 6 percent.
RI's non oil and gas export destinations (in billion U.S. dollar) -----------------------------------
2002 2003 ----------------------------------- U.S. $ 7.2b $ 7.1b Japan $ 6.4b $ 6.6b Singapore $ 4.7b $ 4.7b China $ 2.2b $ 2.7b Malaysia $ 1.9b $ 2.3b S. Korea $ 1.1b $ 1.8b Germany $ 1.3b $ 1.4b Taiwan $ 1.2b $ 1.2b Australia $ 1.0b $ 1.1b Others $17.4b $18.4b ----------------------------------- Total $45.0b $47.4b ----------------------------------- Source: BPS