CRO, INDONESIAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT

ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - Heads of Croatian and Indonesian chambers of commerce on Monday signed an Agreement on Cooperation which should enable a more successful cooperation and exchange of information between business people of the two countries. #KL# So far, trade between Croatia and Indonesia had been relatively low, mostly because Croatia needed some time to get "emancipated on the world market", president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce Nadan Vidosevic said. He stressed Croatia's interest for cooperating with Indonesia and said that his talks with his Indonesian colleague had focused on the possibilities of Croatia acting as a gate for the entry of Indonesian products in eastern and central Europe. The exchange of goods between the two countries from 1990 to today has been uneven, to the advantage of Indonesia. The main Croatian goods exported to Indonesia were pharmaceutical products, electrical machinery and equipment, artificial and synthetic fibres. Indonesia imported into Croatia mainly footwear, cotton, boilers and wood products. President of the Indonesian Chamber for Trade and Industry, Aburizal Bakrie said that he considered Croatia as a stable region with which it is worth to cooperate. He expressed interest in cooperation in the fields of telecommunication, tourism, ship building and industrial investments. Bakrie suggested the establishment of a joint business council where business people of the two countries would be able to obtain information about the situation on Croatian and Indonesian markets. He forwarded commendations from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce to the Croatian Institute of Immunology and the Zagreb Textile Complex, companies which have a tradition of cooperation with Indonesia. (hina) lm 081139 MET jul 96