The Trade Ministry and the Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI), also known as Indonesia Eximbank, signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost financing for exporters, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The commitment is part of efforts to reach the government’s goal of increasing non-oil and gas exports by 5.6 percent to US$138 billion, this year.

“With this MoU, we’re trying to increase our export competitiveness, number of exporters as well as their capacities,” said Arlinda, the ministry’s national export development director general, during the signing ceremony on Wednesday.

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The MoU covers financing, guarantee or insurance granting, activities to increase export capacities, product development and data exchange.

As of June, Eximbank had disbursed Rp 96.8 trillion (US$7.2 billion) in financing to exporters, 11.5 percent or Rp 11.2 trillion of which was to SMEs.

The bank previously announced its target to increase financing by 15.96 percent annually to Rp 102.6 trillion by year-end. 

At the same occasion, the ministry held a Technical Coordination Forum (FKT) with exporters, exporters associations and representatives of Indonesian Trade Promotion Centers (ITPC) from 19 countries, trade attaches from 23 countries and trade agencies from 34 provinces.

Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said the meeting aimed to synchronize perceptions and strategies on how the trade reps should promote Indonesia’s products abroad.

“Trade reps should act like a promoter, businessperson; not mere administrative officials. They should have market and product knowledge,” he said. (bbn)