960421

Indonesia to hold

fair in Karachi: in

search for joint

ventures

SHAHID IQBAL

KARACHI: Indonesia will explore possibilities of joint ventures in Pakistan and introduce its products by holding a single-country exhibition in Karachi in the first week of August this year.

The Consul General of Indonesia, Hadi M Soekardi said in a meeting with the office-bearers of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday that there was great potential for joint ventures in both the countries. The Consul assured that his country would look into the matter for joint ventures in petro-chemicals, textile and edible oil sectors.

It was earlier decided in a meeting in Indonesia to setup a palm oil processing plant in Karachi as a joint venture of the two countries. In the same meeting several other fields for joint venture were identified. These were leather garments, cement plants, textiles and palm oil refining.

"I agree that both countries should enhance their effort for increasing trade volume and minimising the balance of trade", Hadi said.

The balance of trade as present is in favour of Indonesia. Pakistan's imports in 1994-95 were $122.5 million while exports to Indonesia amounted to $88.98 million. "We have started importing rice and Kino in large quantities from Pakistan. We are also ready to import more Mangoes," said Hadi.

Rice export to Indonesia in 1994-95 jumped to a staggering figure of Rs 1472.7 million while in the previous four years the country had not imported any rice from Pakistan. Indonesia also imported for the first time sugar and sugarcane from Pakistan worth Rs 413.6 million in 1994-95.

When Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto visited Indonesia in March this year, 12 agreements (MoUs) $ 1.6 billion were signed but so far no agreement has materialised. The Indonesian government had approved a credit line worth $ 400 million for Pakistan to import edible oil and other commodities. The import of palm oil from Indonesia gradually increased to Rs 616 million in 1994-95 from Rs 213.2 million in 1993-94 and Rs 192 million in 1992-93.

The export list shows that Pakistan is gradually losing Indonesian market. Export of cotton (American staple) went down to Rs 323.2 million in 1994-95 while it was Rs 599.7 million in 1993-94, Rs 1277.3 million in 1992-93 and Rs 1858.5 million in 1991-92. In other cases the difference is not as big as in the above item.

"Indonesia's 70 percent export depends on non-oil products while the remaining 30 percent depends on POL," said the Consul General. "We want to expand trade relations with Pakistan for which a single-country exhibition is being held in Karachi in the first week of August," said Hadi.

He said that Indonesia is an export-oriented country whose last year total export were worth around $ 37 billion. He sought co-operation from KCCI for holding the exhibition. KCCI president Haji Shafeeq-ur-Rehman assured Hadi of all possible help in this regard and stressed for enhanced trade relation between the two countries and emphasised for the removal of negative balance of trade with Pakistan.