Singapore - Singapore is Indonesia‘s third biggest trade partner after Japan and the United States, Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Wardana, said here Saturday.
"Our exports to Singapore is the third biggest after those to Japan and the United States. Last year‘s data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed that our exports Singapore reached more than 9 billion Singapore dollars," the ambassador said.
In terms of foreign investment in Indonesia, Singapore ranked first as its 2007 investment reached 3.7 billion US dollars in 124 projects, followed by the UK (US$1.5 billion) and Japan (US$540 million), he noted.
In the tourism sector, Singapore always ranked first in the past several years in terms of the number of tourists visiting Indonesia, the ambassador said.
He pointed out that the five million foreign tourists to Indonesia last year, include 1.4 million vacationers from the island republic, or 26 percent of the total number of holiday makers to this world biggest archipelagic country.
The potential is high and therefore needs to be developed under an economic cooperation with Singapore, he said.
"Thus, I fully support activities in the tourism sector which are designed to promote Indonesia here," the ambassador said.
He said since April 10, 2008, the Indonesian embassy in Singapore rented three buses for three months to promote Indonesia‘s tourism sector.
On July 26 and 27, 2008, the Indonesian embassy will launch an Enchanting Indonesia program to promote its culture and tourism in front of the Takasimaya shopping centre on Orchird Road, he said.
Source: www.antara.co.id (21 April 2008)