Jakarta, Oct 23 (ANTARA) - Indonesia and Iran will set up a joint ventureto build and run a crude palm oil (CPO) refinery in the Central Asiancountry to meet its demand for edible oil, Trade and Industry MinisterRini MS Soewandi said here Tuesday.Scheduled to be constructed between March 2002 and 2003, the refinerywould produce CPO to meet Irian's domestic demand for the commodity whichranged between 300,000 and 1 million tons a year, she said.The minister spoke to the press after the conclusion of the sixth meetingof the Indonesia-Iran Joint Commission on Economic and Trade Cooperationwhich produced a series of agreements.The Iranian delegation to the meeting was headed by Post, Telegraph andTelephone Minister Seyyed Ahmad Mo'tamedi.Indonesia, Rini said, would deliver the CPO to Iran where it would beprocessed into edible oil and the commodity would also be sold tocountries near Iran.Indonesia had also agreed to sell its steel products on counter-tradeterms but Iran had yet to decide what goods it would supply to Indonesiain return.Rini said, the joint commission had agreed on cooperation to holdtrainings in the oil and gas sector, agriculture, animal husbandry,fishery and trainings in banking, tourism and education sector."Cooperation in post, telecommunication, and transportation will includeinformation technology, common stamps, and maintenance of Iran's airplanesby Garuda Indonesia," Rini said.In addition, the chambers of commerce and industry from both countries hadagreed to establish promotion centers in Jakarta and Tehran.The Joint Commission was scheduled to hold its seventh session in December2002 in Tehran to follow up on previous accords.Rini said, the joint commission was important for Indonesia amid itssluggish exports to main destination countries such as the United States,the European Union and Japan.As those countries were facing an economic slowdown, Indonesia needed toanticipate its negative impact, Rini said."One way for it is increasing economic and trade cooperation withnon-traditional partner countries," the minister said.According to data from the Trade and Industy Ministry, total bilateralIndonesia-Iran trade during the past five years (1996-2000) has been onthe decline.In 1997, bilateral trade dropped by 26.08 percent to US$535.21 million,from US$552.45 million in 1996.Bilateral trade showed afurther decline and reached US$221.86 million in1998, US$137.85 million in 1999 and was slightly up at US$240.23 millionin 2000.