RI OFFERS COOPERATION TO VIETNAM TO REDUCE ILLEGAL FISHING

Jakarta, March 1 (ANTARA) - Indonesia has offered fishing cooperation to a visiting Vietnamese delegation as an effort to reduce illegal fishing in the country's waters.

"We can determine the zones so that our traditional fishermen will not be hurt," the chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (Kadin) committee of coordination for Indonesia's relations with Cambodia, Laos, Mynamar and Vietnam, Juan Gondokusumo, said here on Monday.

That could prevent illegal fishing activities that had often been done by Vietnamese fishermen, he said on the sidelines of a Vietnam-Indonesia Business Forum.

He said Natuna could be taken as the joint fishing zone. "Besides fishing cooperation could also be carried out in agriculture," he added.

Indonesia meanwhile is also exploring the possibility to cooperate in mining of limestone in Vietnam which is the raw material of marble tiles and china.

Indonesia's investment in Vietnam has so far been bigger than that of Vietnam in the country. An Indonesian company (Ciputra) has invested in the hotel sector, coal mining, banking and property in Vietnam.

Indonesia's exports to Vietnam in 2008 reached US$1.67 million while its imports from Vietnam reached US$717.670. From January to November 2009 the country's exports to Vietnam reached US$1.3 millions while its imports from that country totalled US$586.430.

The trend of Indonesia's exports to Vietnam from 2004-2008 rose namely around 31.5 percent but in 2008-2009 exports to that country declined by around 17 percent.