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resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has called on Indonesian businessmen to take advantage of the depreciation of the rupiah to boost their exports as a weaker currency could help them more effectively compete in global markets.

The President said after opening Trade Expo Indonesia in Jakarta on Wednesday that with the weak currency, Indonesia'€™s products would be more competitive overseas.

'€œThey [the exporters] still have to the opportunity to expand their markets,'€ Jokowi said.

Currently, the rupiah has lost almost 11 percent of its value so far this year against the US dollar. The currency fell to 14,690 in late September, the lowest since the 1998 financial crisis. On Wednesday, the currency ended the day at 13,723, or 0.3 percent weaker than its previous close.

Jokowi said that the government had taken several measures to help exporters cope with the global economic slowdown such as raising subsidized credit for small and medium companies and injecting roughly Rp 1 trillion (US$72.86 million) in state capital (PMN) into the Indonesian Exports Financing Agency (LPEI) to enable it to raise export financing.

He acknowledged that his government needed to do more to increase exports as the world economic slowdown had adversely affected Indonesia'€™s export destinations. In response, he has instructed the trade minister and Indonesian ambassadors to actively seek trade opportunities in non-traditional markets.

'€œEven the smallest country has potential,'€ he said, adding that the main objective was to maintain a surplus in the trade balance.

Indonesia recorded a $6.22 billion trade surplus in the January-August period of this year. But the surplus was due to a fall in imports rather than higher exports. Total exports and imports slumped by 12.7 percent and 18.96 percent year-on-year (yoy), respectively.

This year'€™s expo, the country'€™s largest trade exhibition, expects to lure more buyers from non-traditional markets, such as Nigeria, India, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Malaysia. The event, which will be held until Oct. 25 at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, will exhibit export-oriented goods and services from around 2,000 companies, including small and medium enterprises, and hopes to welcome more than 14,000 buyers from 118 countries. Among the exhibitors are publicly listed food giant Indofood Sukses Makmur, palm oil producer Musim Mas, component maker Astra Otoparts and cigarette producer HM Sampoerna.

Trade Minister Thomas Trikasih Lembong said that his office would pay more attention to new markets by intensifying promotions, visiting the countries and inviting buyers to Indonesia to discuss business.

'€œThe government is very serious in supporting the trade sector, especially exports,'€ he said, adding that deregulation and de-bureaucratization policies were in line with the government'€™s commitment to boost exports.

In the current economic slowdown, Thomas estimated that the country'€™s exports would decline by 14 percent yoy this year. Despite the contraction, the trade balance would remain positive as imports were also projected to drop by 17 percent.

The Trade Expo this year hopes to book the same volume of transactions as the $1.42 billion recorded last year.

On the expo'€™s first day, several Indonesian companies entered into trade agreements worth more than $8 million with US, Japanese, Malaysian and Australian companies. (prm)