Indonesia's Trade Ministry continues to encourage the country's companies to expand their export markets in the Middle East and Africa despite the political turmoil in the two regions, the Jakarta Post reported on Tuesday.

"The political situation in those regions has not been as bad as media reports suggested and we can continue to trade with those countries," noted Nuryati Lagoda, the ministry's director for export promotion and development, at a seminar in Surabaya of East Java province.

According to Lagoda, the type of Indonesian exports in strong demand in the Middle East and African countries are building materials, medical equipment, handicrafts, garments and furniture.

The latest available data at the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that in 2009 Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports to the Middle East and Africa exceeded 6 billion U.S. dollars.

The Geneva-based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS)'s Business Development Manager Armin Tanjung, who also spoke at the seminar, said both Africa and the Middle East accounted for only a small portion of Indonesia's total exports, but other countries have been tapped into these markets for a very long time and their exports had grown by more than 10 percent annually.

"One of the disadvantages of Indonesian export goods in those regions is price competitiveness, as most of the product prices were based on costly imported materials," Tanjung said.