The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Mumbai in continuation to conduct various activities for developing bilateral relations and co-operation between Indonesia and India with the aim to promote the Trade, Tourism and Investment opportunities recently organized three day long Exhibition titled "Expo Indonesia 2017" at World Trade Centre (WTC), Mumbai on 3rd, 4th and 5thNovember, 2017.
Expo was inaugurated at the hands of Jayakumar Rawal - Minister of Tourism and Culture, Government of Maharashtra, Saut Siringoringo - The Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia, Mumbai. Other dignitaries present at Expo included Consul General of Hungary - Dr. Nobert Revai - Bere and Vijay Kalantari - President, AIAI.
The inaugural ceremony also had the presence of Indian Trade and Tourism Associations, leading Business Entrepreneurs and Indonesian Companies investing in India along with Indonesian communities residing under the jurisdiction of this mission.
While addressing the gathering at Expo Tourism Minister Jayakumar Rawal praised for Indonesia Consulate's pro-activeness and various initiatives in the direction of growing trade with India and appealed to the Indian businessmen that there is a lot we can learn from Indonesia's rising Tourism and Exports to India.
47 Indonesian companies took part in Expo Indonesia 2017, as exhibitors, featuring various products such as: Furniture, Paper, Health-Care Products, Food, Home-Care Products, Batik and Handicraft Products such as Handbags, Accessories etc.
During three day long Expo a series of events also were held such as Seminar on Trade and Investment, "Enhancing Trade and Investment Relations between Indonesia and India", Seminar on Tourism, B2B Meetings for Trade and Investments, Table Top Meetings for Travel and Tourism Industry.
While speaking to media at Expo Saut Siringoringo said, "Expo Indonesia 2017 has seen a remarkable increase in number of participating exhibitors. Indonesia and India enjoy a high level mutual beneficial relations. Implementation of ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) has contributed a lot to increase the trade relations between the two countries. We are also looking forward to having more Indian companies / businessmen wanting to export Indian products and services to Indonesia. The average value of bilateral trade between Indonesia and India in last six years have been reaching to around USD 16 billion."
INDONESIA EXPO 2017 is also expected to further boost Indian tourists to Indonesia beyond Bali. So far the absence of direct flight between Indonesia & India had considerably discouraged the increase of Indian tourist to visit Indonesia and vice versa. However, now we have two Airlines - Garuda Airlines and Air Asia operating direct flights between two countries.
Saut Siringoringo further said, "India is one of the most important engines of the world's economic growth. The "Make in India" move is considered as a breakthrough to open the country's economy for investment. Indonesian companies are expected to invest in India to strengthen ties between both countries. The business partnership in sectors such as financing, automotive and textile must be increased and strengthened as both countries have such huge markets in those sectors.
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