Trade Fair reflects economic relations
Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Perhaps the most interesting "product" displayed in the 2005 Asia Africa Trade Fair, held at the Bung Karno Indoor Stadium (Istora) in Senayan from Monday to Thursday, is the original copy of the Final Communique of the 1955 Asian African Conference (AAC).
One paragraph reads: "The AAC further recommended that intra- regional trade fairs should be promoted and encouragement given to the exchange of trade delegations and groups of businessmen ... normal facilities should be provided for transit trade of land-locked countries."
However, 50 years on the Pakistani, Egyptian and Afghan "delegations" participating in the Trade Fair still think that the nations of the two continents have not done much to implement that communique.
They said that economic relations, particularly with Indonesia, had been stagnant due to lack of promotion.
Javaid Shaheen of the Pakistani Embassy's handicraft promotion said that trade between Indonesia and Pakistan should be far above the current level.
"Pakistan buys 70 percent of its crude palm oil needs from Malaysia and the remaining 30 percent from Indonesia. Indonesia is somehow overshadowed by Malaysia," he said on Tuesday.
Pakistan is also overshadowed by India among Indonesians, he said, adding that trade and investment can be boosted if people of the two countries knew more about each other.
He added that Pakistani tourists chose to go to Malaysia rather than Indonesia, mainly because Indonesia was not well- known to Pakistanis and second, there were no direct flights from Karachi to Jakarta or Bali.
"More promotion is needed. It is too bad that for an event like this foreign country participation is minimal," he said.
The Trade Fair, held in conjunction with the Asian-African Summit and the commemoration of the golden jubilee of the 1955 AAC, has 105 booths, with only eight foreign country participants. The countries are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Egypt, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The remaining stands are occupied by state-owned enterprises including power company PLN, oil firm Pertamina, natural gas firm PGN, airline firm Garuda Indonesia, plantation firm PTPN and Bank Mandiri.
Separately, Abdul Mubiin, who represents Afghanistan at the fair, said better trade could have been established if there were direct flights between Indonesia and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Embassy's head of commerce, Ayman M. El-Abd, said that trade between Egypt and Indonesia "has been stagnant for quite some time".
Most Indonesians stop in Egypt after their pilgrimage to Mecca, but there could be more Egyptian tourists in Indonesia if only Egyptians knew more about Indonesia, he said.
Earlier, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) chairman MS Hidayat said the Asian African Business Summit, to be held later this week, aimed more at facilitating the private sectors of participating countries to become familiar with each other. "Then it would depend on the political will of each government to facilitate its private sector in having intercontinental trade," he said.
The forefathers got it right in the communique 50 years ago, and advanced technology in telecommunication and transportation should make it easier to implement those thoughts.
But, as Saadia Salahi of Sudan put it, "We are promoting our country and our culture. But good news stays at home, while bad news, such as the problem we have in Darfur, goes to the world through CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera."