"We see five sectors that need to be encouraged (for the ASEAN and Latin America cooperation)," Hatta Rajasa said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Economic Coordinating Minister Hatta Rajasa said that he would prioritize five sectors of cooperation that can be done between Indonesia and some countries in Latin America.

"We see five sectors that need to be encouraged (for the ASEAN and Latin America cooperation)," Hatta said after the opening of the ASEAN - Latin America Business Forum (ALBF) here on Monday.

The first sector to be a priority of economic cooperation is energy, both conventional energy and renewable energy development, Hatta said.

Hatta also mentioned a number of well-known Latin American countries that have qualified expertise in the field of mining, which can be a potential sector for investing in Indonesia.

Then the second sector is tourism, considering the rising of middle class people in both regions, according to Hatta.

"The third sector is also important, namely the food sector which consists of agriculture in broad sense including farming," said Hatta.

Given the values of Latin American trade overseas territories which were approximately 8.4 trillion U.S. dollars, Hatta said the fourth and fifth sectors that needed to be developed between Indonesia and the region were trade and investment.

"I see (the condition of trade and investment) is positive, but it has not been explored very well," said Hatta.

With the third ALBF event, Hatta hoped that Indonesian entrepreneurs would develop relationships out of the conventional markets (Europe and USA) and looked to the Latin American countries such as Brazil.

Hatta also said that Indonesia wanted to cooperate with Brazil in the cattle sector, agriculture and aviation industries.

"Brazil is one of the strongest countries in Latin America. We need to develop cooperation not only in trade and investment but also in agriculture and energy because Brazil is very strong in the renewable energy sector, so we have to discuss it," said Hatta.

Hatta said that in his visit to Brazil some time ago, opportunities for bilateral cooperation were wide open because Brazil was expected to have good economic growth in 2012.

Besides, Brazil has also been exploring a joint cattle breeding in Indonesia.

Hatta explained that Indonesia will provide the land for cattle ranching in corridor 5 and 6 of the Eastern Indonesia regions, namely in Papua, Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara where 100 thousand hectares of land areas could be provided.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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