Almost five months after his appointment as Indonesian consul general to Davao City, Berlian Napitupulu spoke before Davao media during the Habi at Kape media forum at Abreeza Mall on Wednesday.
Napitupulu stressed his determination to enhance Philippines-Indonesia bilateral relation through a series of activities and programs organized by the Indonesian consulate in Davao City in partnership with government agencies.
“I will make much noise,” he declared.
Since September, Napitupulu has been conducting information dissemination in various areas of the region and even in its neighboring areas such as General Santos and Sarangani Province.
“I have spoken to 1900 students in Ateneo and only few of them know about Indonesia,” the consul general said.
For the month of March, in line with Araw ng Dabaw, Indonesia will be conducting an expo at the House of Indonesia dubbed, “Indonesia F&B Expo” and simultaneously, the Indonesia Culinary Festival at Marco Polo Hotel slated on March 17 to 19.
In addition, other expo and presentations will also be conducted by the consulate at General Santos City and Sarangani Province.
According to Napitupulu, Indonesia serves as the biggest neighbor of the Philippines in Southeast Asia with a total land area of 8.5 million km sq.
In terms of trade, Indonesia’s has exported a total of $3.9 billion trade value from January to October of 2015, and $4.6 billion in the same period of 2016. It has imported a total of $500 million trade value in 2015, and $690 million in 2016.
The consul general said Philippines is a larger trading partner compared to other neighboring Asian countries such as Singapore at $41 billion trade value, Malaysia at $21 billion and Myanmar at $6 billion.
The products Indonesia commonly exports to the Philippines vary from minerals, food, manufactured goods, construction and transport, among others. Meanwhile, it imports food products and chemicals such as activated carbon.
Napitupulu also discussed the Indonesia-Davao relations in terms of trade.
“To Davao, we bound some electrical appliances like refrigerator, motorcycle, automotive, Kawasaki, and also tires, and some plywood, food and beverages, manufactured goods such as soap, detergent like Wings, that is from Indonesia, some chemical materials,” he said.
Meanwhile, the products imported by Indonesia from Davao City are banana, activated carbon, coconut, soap, facial astringents, among others.
With the launching of Davao-General Santos-Bitung service route, Napitupulu expressed his confidence that both countries would benefit in terms of cost and time efficiency.
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