REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said Indonesia successfully doubled its overall exports in only five years` time from 100.79 billion US dollar in 2006 to 203.62 billion US dollar in 2011. "This is a remarkable achievement as many other countries needed more than five years to do it," Gita said in an expose on Indonesia`s export performance, recently.

Gita said Saudi Arabia needed 26 years to double its exports, Singapore 10 years, South Korea nine years, Malaysia seven years and China six years. Countries that equalled Indonesia in this respect were Belgium, Russia, Switzerland, the United States and Brazil.

He said the constant increase in Indonesia`s exports was fueled by an upward trend in the value of its oil/gas and non-oil/non-gas commodities. Within the last five years, the value of Indonesia`s oil/gas exports rose 96.09 percent from 21.21 billion US dollar in 2006 to 41.59 billion US dollar in 2011 while that of non-oil/non-gas exports increases 103.59 percent from 79.58 billion US dollar in 2006 to 62.02 billion US dollar in 2011.

The minister admitted that Indonesia`s exports over the past five years mainly consisted of natural-resource-based commodities such as coal, crude palm oil, rubber, and rubber goods.

"But we are now striving to increase the proportion of commodities with added value by pushing export of industrial goods such as footwear, electronic goods and textiles," he said. He was optimistic that within the next five to 10 years Indonesia`s exports would no longer be dominated by raw materials but by products with high added value. 

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