Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 22 November (BelTA) - Belarus and Indonesia can increase trade to $1 billion over the next five years, Vladimir Ulakhovich, the head of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BelCCI), said ahead of the Belarus-Indonesia Business Forum, BelTA has learned.

“It is a very ambitious target that requires effort, organizational activities, serious marketing analysis, improvement of professional skills of our marketing services specialists for this market which is relatively new for us. I think that within five years, we can achieve this target if we work hard,” Vladimir Ulakhovich said.

Promising is industrial cooperation, which, in contrast to simple trade, involves long-term cooperation, the BelCCI head believes. “These may also be infrastructure cooperation, personnel training, increasing production localization. Since Indonesia is an active regional player and a key country in the ASEAN, we must have a much larger market in mind,” Vladimir Ulakhovich noted.

Mechanical engineering, petrochemistry, supplies of fertilizers are also among the promising areas of interaction, he said. “Others niches for us are food products, medicines, and everything related to woodworking and forestry,” Vladimir Ulakhovich noted. He added that ASEAN countries have identified 12 priorities by 2025, and Belarus could contribute to virtually each of them.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Indonesia to Russia and concurrently to Belarus Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi emphasized a high level of Belarus’ technological development, telecommunications in particular. The ambassador named an increase in mutual trade as the main achievement of the countries over 25 years of bilateral cooperation. According to the National Statistics Committee, in January-September 2018 the Belarus-Indonesia trade amounted to $192 million (up 74% from the same period in 2017). The Belarusian exports soared by 79.7% over January-September 2017 to amount to $170.3 million.

The Belarus-Indonesia Business Forum is underway in Minsk on 22 November. Top on the agenda of the forum are cooperation prospects in trade and economy and presentations of Indonesian companies. Representatives of the business communities of Belarus and Indonesia are set to discuss cooperation in agriculture and agribusiness, banking, real estate, hospitality, chemical industry, production of foodstuffs and other industries. Taking part in the forum are Representatives of seven Indonesian and 50 Belarusian companies.