Press release
28 May 2007
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Sten Tolgfors to visit South East Asia
Minister for Foreign Trade Sten Tolgfors is to visit Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia on 25 May - 3 June.
Among those he will be meeting are Indonesia's Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Communications Mohammad Nuh and the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Ong Keng Yong. The focus of the visit will be free trade agreements (negotiations between the EU and ASEAN and negotiations in the WTO), trade and investment promotion and the IT-telecom and biomedical sectors.
"The aim of a free trade agreement between the EU and ASEAN is to increase trade in both directions. Despite the fact that both world trade and trade with ASEAN have increased, the EU's share of trade with ASEAN is declining. A free trade agreement between the EU and ASEAN could break this trend. Bilateral trade agreements can supplement multilateral ones. But they must never be allowed to interfere with or hamper multilateral efforts," says Mr Tolgfors.
"Profits deriving from greater trade will benefit both our regions; Swedish companies can increase their exports and Swedish consumers can gain access to a greater selection of goods at competitive prices," says Mr Tolgfors.
The Minister for Foreign Trade will also take part in a major Telecom seminar in Jakarta, where Swedish companies will tell of their experiences when introducing 3G telephony. Mr Tolgfors will also meet representatives from Swedish and local business.
In Singapore, he will participate in a trade policy seminar and also visit a biomedical research park.
Contact
Maria PålssonPressekreterare
