Somalia was importing 20 million sarongs per year from Indonesia.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is exploring the possibility of expanding the markets of its small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa through the 11 African countries with which it has already established diplomatic relations, a government official said here on Sunday.
Neddy Rafinaldi Halim, the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry`s director for marketing and business networking, said the aim was to canvass the markets in 45 African countries through the 11 countries which already have diplomatic ties with Indonesia.
"We have conducted a business forum with the ambassadors of 11 African countries to Indonesia," Neddy Rafinaldi Halim said.
According to him, it was concluded at the business forum on June 1, 2011 that there were wide opportunities for Indonesia to market its SME products in the African continent.
In addition, the 11 countries in Africa had a profound interest in strengthening cooperation with Indonesia in the economic field, especially in small and medium businesses.
"At the business forum we found out that there are many potential markets in Africa for the products of Indonesian small and medium enterprises," Neddy said.
He said Somalia was importing 20 million sarongs per year from Indonesia.
"It seems that the African countries with diplomatic relations with Indonesia will facilitate our business players especially SMEs to to gain access to more other countries in the African continent," he added.
To follow it up, Neddy said he would discuss the technical matters with the ambassadors of 11 African countries to Indonesia.
He explained that there were 45 big countries in Africa and 11 of them have had diplomatic relations with Indonesia.
According to him those countries had potential market for Indonesian UKM products. (O001/A/HAJM/14:20/A/O001)
(ANTARA)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
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