Indonesia, Turkey to boost cooperation on industrial

Indonesian and Turkey have agreed to step up cooperation in the technology and industrial sectors, targeting a total trade of 5 billion U.S. dollar over the next five years, a media reported here on Monday. Indonesian Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat, who recently met Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergun in Istanbul, said on Sunday that Turkey's industry had weathered significant growth. "The industrial cooperation is expected to boost trade between Indonesia and Turkey. The Turkish industrial sector is quite strong and we can make the best use of its excellence to encourage the development of our industry," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. Minister Hidayat talked to his counterpart in a bilateral meeting to discuss possible cooperation on automotive, textile machinery, electronic and military equipment sectors. Hidayat said that Turkey was looking forward to expanding its ties with Indonesia in various sectors including the automotive and machinery sectors. Turkey, currently one of the automotive production bases in Europe with an annual production of over than 1.2 million automobiles, eyed cooperating with Indonesia to develop automobile components and engines, he said. He explained that Turkish investors had also expressed interest in investing in the textile machinery industry in Indonesia. Earlier this year, the Industry Ministry launched a program to revitalize the country's textile, footwear and leather industries and provided a total of 177 billion rupiah (19.82 million U.S. dollars). As part of the program, it aims to revamp 3,000 textile machines that are over 25 years old.