REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia sees the Philippines as a potential market in view of that country's fast economic growth.

The deputy head of the Indonesian Representative Office in Manila, Ade Petranto, said in a press release received here on Monday that the Philippines' economy has grown fast in the past five years.

"This has made the Philippines one of the potential markets that could contribute towards increasing the country's surplus in its trade with the Philippines so far," he added.

He stated that in 2015, Indonesia's exports to the Philippines reached US$3.92 billion with the country enjoying a surplus of up to US$3.24 billion.

Philippines' investments in Indonesia from 2011 to 2015 were recorded at US$25 million.

In view of that, Petranto informed that his office had organized an integrated promotional event, "Wonderful Indonesia Festival," at the Glorietta Mall, one of the most popular shopping malls in Makati Business District, Metro Manila, on July 25-26.

"We hope that the event could promote Indonesia to the Philippines community and, in turn, increase Indonesia's exports to that country as well as investment and visits by Philippines tourists to Indonesia," he noted.

The promotional event covering trade products, investment, tourism and education, was attended by a 100 invitees from diplomatic corps, business associations, importers, local media representatives and the general public.

Participants in the event include 23 companies and seven travel bureaus.

A number of other companies have sent displays of their products such as food products and beverages, handicraft, pharmaceutical products, medical herbs and beauty products.

The companies not only came from Jakarta and several provinces in Java and Bali province but also included a number of small and medium companies from North Sulawesi.

The Manila Embassy booth provided information about attractive projects and seeded investment sectors as well as education in Indonesia.

Travel agencies, meanwhile, offered various interesting tour packages. Videos showing investment and trade pitches were shown during the event and drew much attention from visitors.

The head of festival affairs of the Ministry of Tourism, Eddy Susilo, pointed out that the Philippines is a country from where potential tourists can come, and is worth wooing for that purpose.

"This year we have a target of attracting 275,000 tourists from the Philippines. Last year, we received 143,538 visitors," he disclosed.

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