RI, Hungary see bright future for enhanced trade relations

Abdul Khalik , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 05/22/2008 11:18 AM | World

FAVORABLE CLIMATE: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (right) walks side by side with Hungarian President László Sólyom during the latter’s visit to the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday morning. Sólyom later delivered a public speech on climate change at the University FAVORABLE CLIMATE: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (right) walks side by side with Hungarian President László Sólyom during the latter’s visit to the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday morning. Sólyom later delivered a public speech on climate change at the University of Indonesia in Depok.(JP/Berto Wedhatama)

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Hungarian President L*szl* S*lyom agreed to enhance economic and trade relations between the two countries during their meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday.

In a joint press conference after the meeting at the State Palace, Yudhoyono said although the countries currently had healthy relations, he and S*lyom were committed to increasing trade value.

"Both countries have big potential to increase the volume and value of the bilateral trade," he told reporters.

Yudhoyono said they would push the Joint Commission on Bilateral Economic Cooperation to more actively seek new opportunities for economic cooperation.

President S*lyom underlined the need for both countries to increase investment, citing Hungarian oil company Moll's recent examination of Indonesia as a base for operations as an example.

"I will also push small and medium scale firms to actively forge cooperation," he said.

Trade between the countries in 2007 totaled US$114.9 million, with Indonesian exports to Budapest reaching $93.6 million and imports from Hungary $21.3 million. Indonesia mainly exports rubber, textile, footwear, palm oil, spices, leather, rattan, plastic products and handicrafts to Hungary while importing pharmaceutical products, chemicals, electronic and optical products, engineering equipment and machinery.

The presidents discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in education, city cooperation, climate change, inter-civilization dialogue and ways to enhance ties between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union.

"I specifically invited Hungary to involve itself in global intermedia dialogue, which has been conducted in Norway and Indonesia during the last three years."

After thanking Indonesia for giving scholarships for Hungarian students to study in Indonesia, President S*lyom invited President Yudhoyono to visit Hungary.

S*lyom's visit comes 14 years after then Hungarian president Arp*d G*ncz visited Indonesia in September 1994, while former president Megawati Soekarnoputri visited Hungary in September 2002, the last visit by an Indonesian president.

The presidents urged the international community to cooperate to overcome global food and energy crises.

"We also discussed global increases in oil and food prices. We realized we have to find a solution not only at the domestic level, but also globally to solve the problems," Yudhoyono said.

He said multinational companies, which have reaped huge profits from oil price increases, should help those countries negatively affected.

With the increases hitting poor countries the hardest, S*lyom said the problem needed an international solution to avoid global security and injustice crises.

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