JAKARTA: Over 30 businesspeople from Belgium were accompanied by Indonesian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union Yuri O. Thamrin to the recent Trade Expo Indonesia, resulting in contracts worth US$16.5 million.
The Trade Expo Indonesia from Oct. 12 to 16 at the Jakarta International Expo venue in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, was held by the Trade Ministry and included manufactured goods, furniture, home decorations, food and beverages, fishery and agricultural products, crafts, beauty products, creative industry items, services and investment opportunities. Yuri said Tuesday that Belgian businesspeople were looking for trade opportunities, including in interior decoration, furniture and coffee.
“It is the second time [this year] Belgian businesses visited Indonesia,” Yuri said after his public lecture on EU and Asia Pacific partnership at the University of Indonesia.
During the March visit, Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Trade Pieter de Crem had said that Belgian businesspeople were initially hesitant to invest in Indonesia given the economic climate.
However, during the Expo, Yuri said some of the Belgian delegation members had signed contracts at the expo worth US$16.5 million. According to the Indonesian Trade Ministry, Indonesia enjoyed a trade surplus of $553 million in 2015 with total trade between Indonesia and Belgium worth $1.6 billion.
The value of Indonesian exports to Belgium in 2015 reached $1.1 billion, while imports hit $559 million. In March, a 300 person Belgian delegation representing 127 Belgian companies and various government institutions visited Indonesia.
Belgian Ambassador to Indonesia Patrick Hermann described the delegation, led by Princess Astrid, the younger sister of the current Belgian monarch, King Philippe, as “one of the largest European economic missions in Indonesia”.
