Indonesia looks at Asia following downturn in EU market

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said Friday that Indonesia would focus its exports on Asian countries following the slow economic recovery in European countries.
“Europe has yet to get through its (economic) crisis period at the moment. In the meantime, Asian markets continue to grow,” the minister said.

She added that besides European countries, used to be the country’s traditional export destination, Indonesia could not hope much from the US market since the US is experiencing slow growth at the moment.

The minister, however, said that the US market has yet to decline as the export share to the United States remains at 11% since Y 2005. The plan to increase exports to Asian countries was intended to anticipate the ongoing conditions in US and European countries, she added.

Furthermore the trade minister said that Thailand was one of Indonesia’s emerging export markets with export figure to that country continues to grow in the last few years.

According to the ministry’s data, exports to Thailand from January to July this year reached US$2.3B.

“That figure was 80.9% higher compared to that in the same period last year,” Mari added.

Indonesia’s commodities exported to Thailand among others are Copper, Papers and Processed filaments.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Sep 4th, 2010and filed underAsia, Equities, Latest News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site