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Indonesia expects trade with Africa to surge by 80 percent in 3 years

Xinhua, April 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesia's chamber of commerce and industry has set the target for trade with Africa to grow by 80 percent in the next three years, an Indonesian business leader said Tuesday at the Asian-African Business Summit.

Africa is abundant with potential that could be utilized, yet trade between Asia and Africa needs to be further promoted, said Noke Kiroyan, committee head of the business summit.

"Trade and investment in Africa need to be accelerated so it could be utilized optimally. On the other side, Africa is still affected by negative image due to diseases like Ebola, and terrorist acts," he said.

According to Indonesia's chamber of commerce and industry, a target has been set for the country to increase its annual trade volume with Africa from nearly 11 billion U.S. dollars now to around 20 billion dollars in three years' time. The chamber holds that the volume is still far below that of China's and India's.

At the business summit, which was held as part of the events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference, Noke urged that it should be the responsibility of the business community to utilize this potential and carry forward this development.

He added that among Asian and African countries, Indonesia ranks 17th in terms of infrastructure. The under-developed infrastructure added up logistic costs for trade, so it is very imperative that Indonesia puts infrastructure development as the main agenda. Endi