It will be economically viable to invite them to Indonesia rather than the producersgoing abroad."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia plans to proactively woo buyers from various countries by inviting them to the country, in an endeavor to increase its exports, stated a Trade Ministry official.

"We will invite select foreign buyers to visit specific regions outlined in our plan. The buyer mission program is an innovative step taken by the Trade Ministry this year (to increase exports)," the Director General of Export Development Nus Nuzulia Ishak announced at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Nus emphasized that the Trade Ministry will ask the Indonesian Trade Promotion Center to chart out a list of potential buyers who will be invited to visit the country.

"We will meet them with exporters while giving priority to promote small and medium businesses," he added.

He remarked that the buyer mission program will be focused on ten countries comprising traditional and non-traditional export destinations.

The five traditional export destination countries are the US, Japan, China, Korea, and India, while the non-traditional ones include countries from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

"We expect the buyer mission program to generate total transactions of about US$120 million and will also assist us in finding 20 additional buyers this year," he claimed.

He explained that the funds for inviting the potential buyers, amounting to around Rp7 to Rp8 billion, will be fully borne by the Trade Ministry.

"It will be economically viable to invite them to Indonesia rather than the producers going abroad," he added.

He stated that on priority basis, the potential buyers will be scheduled to visit production centers of potential export products such as furniture, handcrafts, processed foods, and medical equipment.

He emphasized that in 2014, the Trade Ministry plans to conduct 179 intensive and coordinated promotion efforts at home and abroad, with 55 percent of its efforts being directed towards non-traditional markets, 41 percent towards traditional markets, and the rest being focused on the domestic market.

(Reporting by Vicki Febrianto/H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/O001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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