I

ndonesia'€™s biggest annual trade event, Trade Expo Indonesia, opened on Wednesday showcasing a wide array of locally-produced commodities and goods, ranging from coffee to automobiles.

The 29th trade expo, held in a 40,000 square-meter space at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, will run until Oct. 12. The organizer expects transactions to reach about US$800 million during the exhibition.

Speaking during the opening of the event, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said that the expo was aimed at showcasing not only highly competitive Indonesian products but also ongoing industrialization in Southeast Asia'€™s biggest economy.

'€œWe want to show the world that Indonesia is undergoing a transformation by processing raw materials and semi-finished products to finished goods by way of industrialization,'€ he said.

In line with the theme '€œToward Green Business'€, the expo exhibits commodities and goods made under a process claimed to be '€œsustainable'€ and '€œeco-friendly'€, including palm oil and wood, in addition to general products such as textiles, home decorations, fashion, accessories and furniture.

The expo also provides a special space '€” ASEAN Pavillion '€” to exhibit products made by neighboring countries in Southeast Asia ahead of the establishment of the region'€™s single economic community
next year.

While the target is set to increase by 10 percent from $662 million last year, the number of registered buyers jumped by nearly 150 percent to 14,000.

President-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said after the opening ceremony that the yearly event provided an excellent channel to promote Indonesian exports.

'€œWe need to make the event bigger in terms of stands, exhibitors and buyers,'€ said Jokowi when asked about his assessment of the expo in which he, as a furniture exporter, took part regularly.

'€œIf we want to penetrate a certain region, we must visit the countries there and participate in their exhibitions as well,'€ he added.

Jokowi has repeatedly talked about boosting exports and reducing the trade deficit as one of the country'€™s central economic policies targeted at achieving economic growth of more than 7 percent
each year.

During the first day, the expo recorded initial transactions of $35 million through purchase contracts between Indonesia'€™s paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper and two Australian buyers '€” Paper Force (Oceania) Pty Ltd. and Solaris Paper Pty Ltd. Germany, through its import promotion arm, officially provided its trade facilitation to Indonesia, the first Southeast Asian nation picked for a program that includes business matching, along with Peru and Egypt.

Julia Hoffmann, the head of Germany'€™s Import Promotion Desk for the Bonn project office, said that Indonesia was chosen based on the strong interests of German importers to source goods from the
country.

'€œThis is a demand-oriented program. According to demand analysis, German importers rated Indonesia very highly for their products, product range and quality, particularly in the technical wood sector and also wood sectors,'€ she said.