Jakarta, Dec. 10 -- High import tax in destination countries in Africa has hampered Indonesian exports to the continent, a researcher of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has said. "We have a lot of investment there (in Africa), but it is quite hard to export due to the high import tax," LIPI's coordinator of the research group for Europe and Africa Dr. Ahmad Helmy Fuady said in a seminar on Indonesian economic diplomacy in Africa held here Tuesday.

A lower import tax would significantly impact the country's exports to Africa, Fuady said, adding that import tax for Indonesian products was set at 15 percent on the average.

"Each one percent of import tax reduction will boost our export by some 0.9 percent," he said.

It means t...