RI, Turkey target US$5 billion in bilateral trade

Antara News, Monday, February 8, 2010 01:32 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and Turkey have set themselves a target of bilateral trade volume of US$5 billion in the coming five years, Indonesian Ambassador to Turkey Awang Bachrin said here on Sunday.

"We will try to increase the trade volume through various activities such as the publication of `Indonesia News` which contains investment and business opportunities in Indonesia, primary commodities and tourism destinations," he said.

Indonesia`s commodities whose exports to Turkey continued to increase included rubber, rubber-based products, plastic, plastic products and textiles.

These commodities have the prospect to become Indonesia`s main exports to Turkey in the future.

Indonesia in 2009 was Turkey`s 28th biggest exporter country with exports accounting for 0.7 percent of the total value of Turkey`s total imports.

Indonesia imported about 95 types of commodities from Turkey in the 2005-2009 period.

During the period the two-way trade of both nations experienced an annual growth of about 54 percent which was in favor of Indonesia.

In 2008, the volume of both nation`s trade was recorded at 2.1 billion dollars. In 2009, the trade volume however declined as a result of global economic crisis.