Indonesia aims to sign Japan pact this year

Indonesia hopes to sign a free trade pact with Japan — Japan’s first to include energy — by midyear, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said on Thursday.

Resource-poor Japan is the world’s largest LNG importer, absorbing about 58 million tonnes in 2005 or almost half of global exports. Indonesia is the world’s second largest LNG exporter after Qatar, and a key supplier of the fuel to Japan.