The Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) will be held virtually from Nov. 10 to Nov. 16 to push national exports amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto said on Monday.

The virtual TEI was expected to open a new era in organizing an exhibition in an effort to augment the incomes of entrepreneurs and exporters by making business matching and other programs during the event, the minister told a virtual press conference.

Suparmanto said the exhibition to be inaugurated by Indonesian President Joko Widodo was expected to attract more participants with bigger transaction values than those in the 2019 event which was attended by about 33,330 partakers with transaction values of 10.96 billion U.S. dollars.

The Tarde Ministry's Director-General for National Export Development Kasan said the ministry's team has informed about the upcoming exhibition to a number of countries including embassies in 132 nations.

Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rosan Perkasa Roeslani said the forthcoming TEI was the long-awaited event by the business communities both at home and abroad.

"Amid the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to move forward, make innovations and be creative in support of the long-awaited event," Roeslani said.

He hoped Indonesian products could penetrate non-traditional markets in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America through the exhibition.