"We have yet to reach an agreement as this is the first meeting of the working group. We only gave them a picture of our economy, and so did they," Director General of International Trade Cooperation at the Trade Ministry Iman Pambagyo said following an Indonesia-Brazil bilateral held on the sidelines of ALBF here on Monday.
At the discussion, both nations reached a common view about the efforts that could be made to strengthen investment and trade relations between the two countries, he said.
During the introductory meeting, Iman said he saw no obstacle to the two nations growing together.
"Both of us realized that this meeting was held not because of economic crisis in Europe nor slowdown in the US economy but because of our necessity to expand our market to Brazil. Brazil sees Indonesia plays an ever increasingly important role in this region," he said.
He said the two delegations informed each other of their efforts to encourage investment and trade relations.
The investment coordinating boards of the two countries also discussed investment potentials in the two nations during the meeting, he said.
"As a matter of fact they have expanded their businesses abroad. They have around 85 trade offices worldwide. That is what we can learn from them. We also got a lot of information about how Brazilian companies have expanded their business abroad," he said.
ALBF is aimed at exploring the possibility of investment and trade cooperation between ASEAN member states and Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Mexico.
The meeting was opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and will be closed by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa on Tuesday.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
