The Korea International Trade Association (Chairman, Kim In-ho) newly opens Jakarta branch in Indonesia and actively supports Korean trading companies to make inroads into the country in order to preoccupy ASEAN markets which are considered as “Post-BRICs”.

 KITA successfully hosted “Opening Ceremony of Jakarta Branch and Economic Cooperation Seminar” at Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia on 9^th June with some 200 influential figures of Korea and Indonesia including Chairman Kim In-ho of KITA, Chairman Han Joon-ho of Samchuly Bycycle Co., Ltd, Chairman Chung Suk-hyun of Soosan Heavy Industries Co., Ltd, Chairman Lee Min-jae of MSON Co., Ltd., the Ambassador Cho Tae-young to Indonesia, Indonesia’s Trade Minister Rahmat Gobel and Chairman Franky Sibarani of Indonesia Investment.

 Chairman Kim In-ho of KITA stressed in the opening ceremony “Indonesia has displayed the robust growth rates of 5 to 6 percent while the global economy is still struggling. Indonesian market has a great potential to grow as it has been aggressively unfolding the extensive infrastructure expansion plan since Indonesia’s new president Joko Widodo took his office last year”. He also added “The Jakarta branch will play significant roles in resolving difficulties for Korean companies who have already entered into Indonesia and also in expanding trade for the companies who want to make inroads into the market”.

 In addition, Chairman Kim stated “Recently, Korean IT companies are active in Indonesia with their games, e-commerce, and mobile messenger and Hallyu (the Korean Wave) is booming in the country with K-POP and dramas. KITA is planning to actively support Korean IT companies’ entry into Indonesian market through working closely with the “Service Policy Team”, which was newly established last week, to support IT services as well as the Hallyu industries to expand their businesses to the overseas.

 Indonesia is the fourth-most-populous country with the total population of 250 million people and its GDP takes up 40 percent of the overall GDP of 10 ASEAN countries. The country is rich in natural resources such as natural gas, coal, etc. The trade volume between Korea and Indonesia, which could not even reach 200 million dollars when the two countries formed ties in 1973, expanded to 23.6 billion dollars as of last year. Therefore, the economic cooperation and trade volume between the two countries are expected to grow significantly in the future.