T

he Trade Ministry has shied away from stating its target for total transactions at the upcoming 29th Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI), the country'€™s largest trade exhibition.

Rather than spelling out the target as usual, Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi said on Thursday that the ministry wanted to focus on post-event follow-ups.

'€œ[After holding the event for almost 29 years] the ministry is increasingly aware that the real target actually is [focusing on] post-event follow ups, not the total transactions at the exhibition,'€ he said.

Bayu cited as an example last year'€™s exhibition, which booked total transactions of US$1.82 billion, which was much smaller than the transaction value achieved six to nine months after the exhibition.

He, however, did not mention the amount of transactions made following last year'€™s exhibition.

He also said the ministry expected to record the same number of buyers, 10,000, for this year'€™s expo as last year'€™s.

He argued that a high number of buyers unnecessarily reflected high contract value, saying buyers who had contracts of high value were not many.

'€œLoyal buyers who have attended the event many times and have become subscribers are more important. We shall pay more attention to them,'€ Bayu said. '€œWe will focus more on the quality rather than quantity.'€

He said that the ministry would also award buyers who consistently bought Indonesian products in the past three years as well as the five best exporting companies participating in the expo.

According to Trade Ministry data, out of $1.82 billion transactions at last year'€™s expo, 58.49 percent were investments, 37.91 percent were
goods purchased and the remaining 3.61 percent were from the service sector.

Last year'€™s expo missed the target of 10,000 buyers by recording only 9,343 buyers from 118 countries. The figure, however, was nearly double the 5,430 buyers coming from 95 countries at the 2012 expo.

This year, the expo will be held at the Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) from Oct. 8 to 12.

The exhibition is expected to give wider access and export opportunities to several non-traditional countries, such as Africa, the Middle East, eastern Europe and Latin America.

The exhibition is also part of the ministry'€™s efforts to achieve an export growth target of 4.16 percent this year.

Indonesia'€™s trade balance has been fluctuating in the last five months. It returned to positive territory in May, posting a surplus of $69.9 million after a $1.96 billion deficit in April. In March and February, the trade balance was in positive territory with $673.2 million and $785.3 million, respectively. While in January, Indonesia posted a $440.6 million deficit. (ask)