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Exports to china reach US$16b annually

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-07-10 09:51

Chairman of the Indonesia-China Business Council (ICBC) Pusat Sharif C. Sutardjo said Indonesia's exports to China reached 16 billion U.S. dollars annually, while its imports were less than 16 billion U.S. dollars yearly.

"This will give positive impact to the Indonesian economy," Antara news agency quoted Sharif as saying on Sunday after inaugurating the new executive board of the ICBC in Bali island.

He said the exports had yet to involve small-and-medium scale businessmen.

Indonesia, meanwhile, imported hundreds of kinds of commodity from Chinese small-and-medium scale businesses.

He expressed the hope that the ICBC would bridge cooperation between Indonesian businesspersons and their Chinese counterparts so that Indonesia's exports to China would increase.

"The benefit of the cooperation is expected to touch people of all layers in society, besides bringing advantage to small-and- medium scale's products," he added.

This condition, according to Sharif, was important as the Indonesian economy, in reality, had yet to develop as expected although macro-economically it had shown better improvement.

"This can be seen in increased number of unemployment from 9 million to 11 million and of poor families which had reached 36 million," he said.