JAKARTA, April 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The two-day Asian-African Business Summit concluded in Jakarta Friday with a joint commitment to "move beyond rhetoric" and to increase direct trade between the two continents.

    In the join declaration on Enhancing Cooperation for Progress between Asian-African Business Community, delegates agreed to promote South-South Cooperation among countries in Asia and Africaon the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

    They proposed the establishment of Asian-African business centers in which business people from both regions can exchange information and share experiences on best practices, competitiveness, development issues, and business and investment potential.

    In their efforts to identify viable areas of economic cooperation and to harmonize policies to support closer collaboration of the regions, they agreed to set up a working group.

    The business cooperation focuses on investment promotion, product quality and marketing and skills development in important sectors such as tourism, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and information technology.

    Delegates said the cooperation will give high priority to facilitating increased public and private sector investment in regional infrastructure and to developing efficient road, railroad,sea and air transportation and telecommunication systems to facilitate greater movement of goods and people.

    They also agreed to organize a biennial Asian-African Business Conference and the next meeting is proposed to be in Cairo in 2007.

    Some 500 representatives of mostly business people from 24 countries in Asia and Africa have attended the Jakarta conference,which also heard speeches from several heads of states.

    Asian-African leaders invited in the forum included Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Enditem