T

he Australian state of Victoria officially opened its trade office in Jakarta on Tuesday to further strengthen its trade relations with Indonesia, one of its important trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region.

Victoria Premier Denis Vincent Napthine said their representatives would work together with the Australian Embassy and Australia-Indonesia Business Council in conducting the activities of the office.

'This permanent office will help Victorian businesses who wish to partner with Indonesian counterparts and do business over the long term in Indonesia and also for Indonesian businesses who wish to export to Victoria and Australia,' Denis said in Jakarta.

'We believe we are going to further strengthen our relationships because geographically we are close neighbors and we have so much in common. We are open to business opportunities here and we understand that it takes time to develop [business] relationships.'

In conjunction with the launch, he said that the Victoria government sent a Super Trade Mission (STM) to Indonesia, representing over 200 companies and 300 representatives that wanted to explore business opportunities in automotive, infrastructure, aviation, higher education, vocational training education, food, agribusiness, communications, healthcare, information and technology, tourism, urbanization and wealth management sectors.

He claimed the trade group was the largest trade delegations to come from Australia.

The STM will also showcase Victoria's strengths in urbanization and infrastructure together with its services, solutions and technologies during their visit in Jakarta on Tuesday and Wednesday.

He said that Melbourne was consistently ranked as one of the world's most livable cities and they wanted to offer Indonesian companies the opportunity to tap into collective expertise and knowledge toward improving the management of urban and suburban areas.

According to their data, within Southeast Asia, Indonesia is Australia's most significant market for the export of automotive goods worth AUS$83.6 million (US$79 million) in the fiscal year 2012, a 31 percent increase from the previous financial year.

The country is also Australia's most significant market for the export of goods estimated at $1.9 billion throughout last year.

In addition, for Victoria state government alone, Indonesia is one of the top five trading partners with a total trade of $2.12 billion in the past two years.

He was optimistic that the figure would grow significantly in the future, as Indonesia was increasingly prominent across Asia with its growing middle-class.

Transportation Ministry air transportation director general Herry Bakti Gumay said the governments of Indonesia and Australia were currently reviewing an air service agreement in order to allow carriers from both countries to increase the frequency of connections.

He said the agreement was expected to provide an additional 25,000 seats per week, almost an 80 percent increase on the current capacity, for flights between Indonesian and Australian destinations this year.

'Since we provide a lot of room for airlines from both countries, we expect the carriers will tap into the opportunity as much as they can. This will benefit every sector in Indonesia and Australia because more connections will better develop the economy, ' he told The Jakarta Post.

Currently, air slots between Jakarta and Canberra stood at 31,250 seats per week, and were mostly used by national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Australian Qantas Airways, Jetstar and Pacific Blue, in addition to several chartered carriers.