China, Indonesia ink over US$4bln worth of business cooperation agreements

More than 10 Chinese and Indonesian businesses signed Friday cooperation agreements worth over four billion US dollars.

These agreements mainly involve finance, oil, gas, engineering project and IT.

"Indonesia and China need to further promote cooperation," said Mohamad S. Hidayat, president of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at the signing ceremony.

Approximately 500 business people from China and Indonesia attended the ceremony and a business luncheon jointly organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade ( CCPIT) and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It constituted an important event for the four-day on-going state visit to China by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has left Beijing Friday afternoon for Shenzhen, China's special economic zone in south China's Guangdong Province, as guest of his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

"Indonesia is one of the best options for Chinese investors," Hidayat said. "More Chinese business people are welcome to participate in the building of Indonesia."

Statistics show that the two-way trade volume reached 13.48 billion US dollars in 2004, up 31.8 percent year--on-year. During the first five months, the trade volume between the two countries stood at 6.7 billion US dollars, indicating a yearly rise of 37 percent.

China is now Indonesia's fourth largest trading partner, while Indonesia is China's eighteenth.

Currently, China chiefly exports electrical appliance, electronic equipment, machinery, furnishings, textiles and motorcycles to Indonesia. While Indonesia mainly exports crude oil, natural gas, palm oil, paper, paper pulp and timber to China.

"Along with the initiation of the China-ASEAN (Association of the Southeast Asian Nations) FTA (Free Trade Area), trade barriers between the two sides are being gradually eliminated, and the economic and trade relations between China and Indonesia have thus seen a more powerful driving force," CCPIT President Wan Jifei said.

"The economic complementariness and rapid growth of bilateral trade are also inspiring. We hope the business circles of the two countries can join hands more closely to expand cooperation," he said.

Source: Xinhua