The ambassador Markku Niinioja marked his word on a column “from the ambassador’s desk” saying that he had the great pleasure to introduce the Finn Biz news to inform the economic development and trade between the countries.
Thus adding that any suggestions, ideas and even jokes from readers are welcomed.
Ivan Alidjaja, the trade and development officer at the embassy of Finland, who responsible to the magazine talked to us about the objective of the magazine and what will be advantaged for the readers.
Q: What is the purpose of the magazine?
A: There are several objectives which we would like to achieve: We would like to inform Finnish companies that Indonesia is still a potential market for their products in Asia.
We would like to inform Indonesian companies that Finland has other potential products besides the well-known Nokia, Wartsila and other big companies which have been around in this country for quite some time.
More importantly, we would like to be known that our trade office in Jakarta is present and ready to assist either serious Indonesian or Finnish companies in their trading/business.
Q: What is the content is all about?
A: We are trying to give the reader what really happens in Indonesian market by putting more testimonial of Finnish companies which are in Indonesian market for quite some time. We also put in some trade statistics (for those who like numbers) between Indonesia and Finland to show that in the past few years, the trade has been in positive trend in comparison with some years ago (post Asian economic crisis).
Some general knowledge about how business is conducted (such as investment) in Indonesia will be the main topic – we may discuss other topics such as customs, tax, business ethics, etc.
Q: What is the readers’ benefit from this magazine?
A: We hope that we can achieve our objectives mentioned above. On top of that, we would like this magazine/newsletter to encourage our readers to contact The Embassy’s Trade Office in Jakarta. In the long run, we hope that our trade traffic between two countries will significantly improve in reasonable pace.
Q: Who is responsible for the magazine?
A: The Trade Office of the Embassy of Finland in Jakarta is currently responsible for this magazine – for this makes me responsible for practical side of the newsletter. However, all the content must go through approval from the Ambassador.
Q: How often it will be published?
A: It is scheduled to be quarterly but we are still considering bi-monthly or monthly. We might change our plan to monthly or bi-monthly but make it shorter newsletter.
Q: Is it only online or also printed in a hard copy?
A: We plan to make it online so the reader can easily save it in the hard drive and reload it in the future. At this moment, we make it in word document format – we may change it to PDF file to make it smaller size if we have more pictures in it.
Q: What do you think about the bilateral trade between Finland and Indonesia?
A: Finnish and Indonesian companies are making a good progress in pushing the comodity trade-figures up. According to the custom’s statistics, Finnish companies exported from Finland to Indonesia worth Euro 194 Million in 2005 (+53%), and Indonesian companies to Finland worth Euro 165 Million (+39%). Now Indonesia is Finland’s 7th biggerst trading partner in Asia, it rose some steps up during 2005 and is getting closer to its position before the Asian crisis.
Judging from the January and February 2006 figures, our export to Indonesia has showed promising start at almost 49 million euro in comparison with 52,5 million import from Indonesia. We would like to see that 2006 trade-figures between Indonesia and Finland will improve in comparison with year 2005.
To read an online edition of the magazine please sees http://www.finland.or.id/en
Address
Trade and Development Officer
Embassy of Finland
Menara Rajawali, 9th Floor
Jl Mega Kuningan Lot #5.1
Kawasan Mega Kuningan
Jakarta 12950, Indonesia
Phone: +62 21 576 1650
Fax: +62 21 576 1631
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.finland.or.id
