Vietnam plans to join ACP

Vietnam plans to join ACP

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam is planning to become a member of the
Association of Coffee Producers in an effort to help stabilize
prices, a visiting Indonesian minister said yesterday.

Trade Minister Satrio B. Joedono said Vietnamese Agriculture
Minister Nguyen Cong Tan had agreed to join the association but
the proposal had to be approved by the government and the coffee
group.

Vietnam is Asia's second largest coffee producer after
Indonesia and is expected to export 170,000 tones of robusta this
year.

Joedono said that encouraging Vietnam to join the group was
aimed at helping maintain high prices for the commodity, which
have soared in the past year.

The Indonesian minister raised the subject again in talks
yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Khai, who wields
considerable power over Vietnam's economic policy.

Joedono is in Hanoi for a meeting of a joint Indonesian-
Vietnamese economic commission aimed at boosting trade and
investment between the countries.

Indonesia led the countries of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) in establishing trade links with Vietnam,
but in recent years has fallen behind its richer neighbors in
investment here.

Trade last year between the two reached US$250 million, with
Indonesia selling $165 million of fertilizer and consumer goods
to Vietnam, which exported $85 million of agricultural products.

Indonesian investment stands at $161 million of licensed
projects in coal, tourism, oil and polyester production.

The chambers of commerce and industry from the two countries
signed a cooperation agreement yesterday aimed at boosting
economic links.