Delegates from 34 Asian and African countries have thrown their weight behind Indonesia's proposal to set up a business council to boost economic ties between the private sectors on the two continents.



In the declaration adopted on Tuesday at the closing of the Asian-African Business Summit, the representatives agreed on the formation of the Asian-African Business Council (AABC) as an open-ended body with its secretariat to be based in Indonesia and a co-secretariat to be located in South Africa.



As proposed, the council will meet at least once a year in an Asian or African country on a rotating basis, while the inaugural meeting of the council will be held in Indonesia within six months.



Egypt is scheduled to host the second meeting of the AABC next year. Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) chairman Suryo Bambang Sulisto said that the business council might resemble the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC), which so far had already served as a successful forum to foster closer links between business communities in the 21 Asia-Pacific economies and provided policy recommendations for the governments.



'We will later discuss the operational stuff of the council, such as the organizational structure. We may look into establishing varied committees for priority sectors that can change according to the need,' he said in a press conference after the summit.



Apart from the foundation of the council, the delegates also gave a nod to a number of measures to expand South-South cooperation, including to eliminate trade barriers, to refrain from the use of non-tariff barriers to trade and to enhance trade facilitation within an open, fair and rule-based international trading system.



Despite the enormous much-touted potentials, two-way trade between Asia and Africa is relatively low, particularly in comparison to the size of their populations.



At present, trade between the two continents of 5.59 billion people only totals around US$13.3 trillion, according to the figure cited by Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel in his speech at the first session of the summit. That compared to $8 trillion worth of trade that happens internally within Asia.



Only a few Asian countries have advanced into tapping business potentials in the huge African market, especially through direct investment. China and India, for example, have seen their trade with the 54 Asian countries reach a value of $200 billion and $70 billion respectively, much higher than the two-way trade booked by Indonesia with the same nations: $10.7 billion in 2012.



Indonesian investment in Africa is still limited to involvement by big firms, notably those with extensive global exposure like Indofood, Wings, Kalbe Farma, Wilmar Nabati and Kedaung Indonesia, that have craved success stories in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Mauritius, which have a sizable combined market of 1.1 billion people.



South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said he welcomed the establishment of the council, underlining the importance of an institutional framework from both sides to take the economic relations to new heights. 'A business council is much more practical than the conversations we've been engaged in, so it must look at the potential of business relations: what it takes, what's involved, what capacities we have, how we could bring them together and identify common projects,' he told The Jakarta Post.

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