Podhorec: Slovak Firms Eye Indonesia as Trade Seen Rising

Jakarta/Singapore/Bratislava, 6 February (TASR-correspondent) – Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar was accompanied on his visit to Indonesia and Singapore by a business mission made up of more than ten Slovak companies, as well as representatives of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) and Eximbanka, TASR's special correspondent reported on Friday. Eximbanka chief executive Rastislav Podhorec stressed that Indonesia is a country that is attracting growing interest from Slovak businesses, and so he expects an increase in the volume of bilateral trade. "Indonesia is a country with huge opportunities. It's a country into which foreign investment is flowing, so it's great that we are here and that Slovak exporters and Slovak companies were able to come," said Podhorec. The volume of mutual trade between Slovakia and Indonesia reached almost €180 million last year. Podhorec didn't rule out that trade exchanges could rise significantly in the future. "I believe that we'll have very interesting export figures to Indonesia this year. I'm very pleased about this, because for a very long time we hardly exported to this region at all," he noted. According to the chief executive, Eximbanka plays a specific role in exports to Indonesia. It can provide potential exporters with financing or insurance against political or commercial risks. However, the bank is currently recording increased interest mainly in the issuing of guarantees. mf/df