Leading Chinese firms to stage exhibition in Jakarta

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - At least 54 leading Chinese companies will hold an exhibition in Jakarta on May 24-27 as part of their efforts to explore the possibility of establishing investment and trade cooperation with Indonesian counterparts, a spokesperson said.

Representatives of the 54 firms based in 13 Chinese provinces would come to Indonesia to find out more about Indonesian markets, Chinese International Trade Promotion Body (CCPIT) Director Liang Haiguang said here Tuesday.

Although many Chinese manufactured goods were already available in Indonesia, the Chinese companies still wanted to promote products that boasted the latest technological features, he said.

Cheri QQ was one of the Chinese products already being marketed in Indonesia, he said.

Liang said Chinese automotive manufacturing company Foton had established a joint venture with an Indonesian firm to set up a truck assembling plant in Indonesia.

But he said he did not know the investment value which was needed to set up the truck assembling plant.

According to Liang, the value of Indonesia-China trade had continued to increase over the past few years. It was recorded at US$19 billion in 2006, or up by 13.5 percent from 2005 and was in Indonesia`s favor.

Liang also said the value of Chinese investment in Indonesia in 2001-2006 was recorded at US$600 million in 310 projects.

Meanwhile, Tao Hun, second secretary for economic and commercial affairs at the Chinese Embassy, said in 2006 China`s exports to Indonesia reached US$9.4 billion and Indonesia`s exports to China US$9.9 billion.

China and Indonesia had set themselves the target to increase the value of their bilateral trade to US$30 billion by 2010, Tao said.