Kadin Surabaya Ready To Facilitate Malaysian Investors

From Ahmad Fuad Yahya SURABAYA (Indonesia), April 10 (Bernama) -- Surabaya Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has stated its readiness to facilitate investments by Malaysian entrepreneurs interested to set up food and drink processing factories here or in East Java. Its chief Dr Jamhadi said the chamber was prepared to assist in making available land and factory building while the Malaysian investors can contribute knowledge, machinery and capital. He believed that a business joint venture between Malaysian entrepreneurs and Surabaya could be successful because of the availability of ample raw materials and huge labour in East Java. "Food are abundant in East Java. If this can be carried out in Surabaya or East Java, it can create a lot of job opportunities while the agriculture products price index will also go up as the products are value-added," he said when met here, Monday. Earlier, Dr Jamhadi participated in a meeting between council members and 26 Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SME) as part of a visit led by Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed. The invitation to Malaysian companies to open facilities here is because there are many Malaysian food and drink products that have penetrated markets in Surabaya and East Java. According to him, among the food-based industry that was of interest was flour milling as the product was still mainly imported. "We want our partners in Malaysia to expand their industry here so as to be nearer to consumers and make the products cheaper...then we can plan for the Asean market. "If (the production) in Malaysia, it's not cheap to get labour from here. If we have a joint venture production here, it can be more profitable particularly when our market is Asean," he said. Dr Jamhadi said Malaysian products that are brought into Surabaya and East Java are canned food and canned drinks as well as those in plastic packs. -- BERNAMA