"The two-way trade between Indonesia and Germany now is only about US$6 billion. I think it should be increased two times to US$12 billion before 2015," the chief economic minister said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has set itself a target of increasing trade to US$12 billion before 2015 with Germany, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said.

"The two-way trade between Indonesia and Germany now is only about US$6 billion. I think it should be increased two times to US$12 billion before 2015," the chief economic minister said Thursday night.

Therefore, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and visiting German President Christian Wulff focused their talks on efforts to increase the trade volumes between Indonesia and Germany.

Hatta expressed optimism that the target was achievable because both countries in developing their trade relations needed each other while the chance to enhance their trade volume was big.

"We import all technology-based products such as automotive, electric turbines and precise tools while we export to Germany commodities such as coffee, tea, rubber and tobacco," Hatta said.

After all, the position of Indonesia-Germany trade volume is still below those of four ASEAN nations like Singapore and Thailand.

"We have to increase the size of our export volume as there is still an open ample room to double our trade before 2015," he said.

The minister said that looking for a new export destination like Germany was very important, yet the government should not forget to seriously develop local market in an effort to anticipate global economic turmoil which was still expected to take place next year.

"We need to diversity our markets, yet it should not mean that we could forget our homework, namely expanding the capacity of domestic market, and the way to do that that is promoting connectivity," Hatta said.

Based on the Central Board of Statistics (BPS)`s data, the value of Indonesia`s non oil and gas exports to Germany in the January - October 2011 period is recorded at 2.42 billion US dollars. Its non oil and gas imports are recorded at 2.83 billion dollars.

At present, Germany is one of the main destination countries for Indonesia`s exports to Europe besides France and Britain.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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