The answer to the first question is Algeria, which currently holds US$149 billion in foreign exchange reserves. The oil-rich North-African country’s reserves exceeds the $72 billion held by Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

In 2008, many people were surprised to hear that the Indonesia’s biggest foreign investor was
Mauritius. The tiny country invested $6.47 billion in Indonesia — more than global giants such the US, Japan, China or Germany. Total foreign direct investment in Indonesia in 2008 reached $14.87 billion.

In 2009, four African countries — Seychelles, Mauritius, Liberia and Mali — invested almost half billion dollars in Indonesia.

Despite these amazing facts about Africa, awareness of the world’s second largest (and second most populous) continent is low in Indonesia.

Indonesia has been co-chairman of the 106-member Asian-African Summit since 2005.

“Indonesia should have better used this opportunity [chairmanship of the summit] to increase its interaction and economic ties with Africa,” Jusuf Wanandi, vice chairman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Foundation’s board of trustees, told The Jakarta Post recently.

“In fact we didn’t do much,” he added.

Indonesia’s trade with all 53 countries in Africa reached $4.76 billion in 2009, much below potential.

More than 80 percent of Indonesia’s trade with Africa was with 10 countries (see table). Indonesia spent $1.38 billion on oil from African countries in 2009.

Africa has 1 billion people and enormous natural resources such as oil, cocoa, cotton, tobacco, minerals, diamonds. Impressive economic growth in many countries makes the continent an attractive place for investment and trade.

Asian giants such as China, India and Japan have aggressively engaged Africa recently, and the US and European Union have followed suit. However, Indonesian businesspeople have shown little interest in Africa.

“We have a very good reputation in Africa. We informed our businesspeople about the potential of African countries many times,” Indonesia’s former ambassador to Zimbabwe Hipudio Supardi told The Jakarta Post in Harare recently.

“But they show little interest in our proposals.”

Some businesspeople in Africa have been looking for business and investment opportunities in Indonesia — and vice versa.

Some African countries have expressed an interest in Indonesia and want to open embassies in Jakarta soon, one senior Indonesian diplomat said.

Indonesia will soon hand over its Asian-African chairmanship, so one may ask if Indonesia did indeed miss the bus to Africa.

It didn’t.

Things have been changing fast in both Indonesia and Africa recently. All the countries involved have had difficulties in overcoming the challenges in boosting relations.

“We are optimistic. We initiated the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership in 2005 to bolster cooperation between Asia and Africa,” said T.M. Hamzah Thayeb, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for Asia, Pacific and African affairs.

“The next summit of Asian-African countries is scheduled to be held in South Africa this year. It
may be postponed because we are still waiting for proposed dates from our friends in South Africa,” Hamzah said.

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