"The trade balance between Indonesia and Nigeria so far has always shown a surplus for Indonesia," Nigerian Ambassador ro Indonesia Ibrahim Mae Sule said here Tuesday.
Indonesia`s trade surplus was created by the purchases of its unique traditional goods made by Nigerian tourists visiting Indonesia, he said.
"Indonesia always enjoys a surplus because Nigerians like to buy local products when they visit Indonesia, especially Batik. The most favorite place for them in Jakarta is Tanah Abang because there they can get many types of Batik," he added.
But economic relations between Indonesia and Nigeria had begun to increase , especially after they signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement in 2001.
He said bilateral relations between Indonesia and Nigeria had been running well since 1965 when Indonesia opened a diplomatic mission in Lagos, and Nigeria set up am embassy in Jakarta in 1976.
However, the two countries still had to further cement their bilateral relations, including direct people-to-people contacts as well as direct air travel links.
"The long distance between the two countries is the main reason why Nigeria and Indonesia do not have a direct air link. We still always have to transit in a third country when we want to visit each other," he said.
According to Ibrahim, there was quite a large number of Indonesian citizens in Nigeria who mostly worked for private companies.
"There are many Indonesians in Nigeria who mostly work for some oil companies," he said.
To promote Nigeria`s economic potentials to Indonesian businessmen, the Nigerian embassy in Jakarta had several times held workshops for them, Ibrahim said.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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