Indonesia has a great opportunity to export various commodities such as coffee, apparel or textiles, and halal products to the United States, especially to the State of Texas, said Dadan Pahlawan, CEO/President Director of 4848 Group. Dadan said that Texas is the 2nd largest state in the US and a number of large companies have offices and factories there."With the existence of large companies such as Tesla, Apple, Dell, Intel, Oracle, IBM, which are engaged in the computer and IT sector. Coupled with the move of Google and Facebook, automatically the need for commodities such as coffee and garments from Indonesia increases," he said when speaking at the 137th World Online Gathering forum in Jakarta, Sunday.
Dadan, who is currently in Austin, Texas, shared his experience on how to take 4848 Group to go international to more than 150 webinar participants from Indonesia and other parts of the world.
He also received input from the Indonesian Embassy and a number of Indonesian Consulates in the United States as well as Indonesian citizens who work or Indonesian students in Uncle Sam's country.
Dadan visited Austin, Texas, and met with a number of Indonesian citizens in a routine recitation forum. In addition, he is also scheduled to give lectures at several state universities and explore opening a business there.
"I was invited to speak at the University of Texas, Arlington, and Clayton States University, Atlanta, this October," said Dadan during a discussion with moderator Fadian Paham, the administrator of the Pondok Indah Grand Mosque Pejuang Subuh.
According to him, Indonesian citizens and students are the nation's ambassadors and are the eyes and ears of Indonesia.
In addition, he also believes that halal products from Indonesia can be exported to the US, which has a high market potential, competing with products from other countries such as Malaysia.
"Halal products are consumed not only by Muslims but also by Jews. In Manhattan, New York, Jews prefer to buy halal products," he said.
In addition, according to him, the number of US citizens who are Muslim is increasing, as can be seen from the increasing number of mosques and there are even mosques that hold Friday prayers twice because of the crowds.
Dadan, who holds a Master's degree from the Department of International Business, University of San Diego, USA, sees foreign markets as an alternative to deal with increasingly fierce business competition in the country.
Today, 4848 Group has become a modern family company. This business entity has businesses in addition to Indonesia as well as in several countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Not a few world-class companies use the services of 4848 Group.
The 4848 Group's businesses include airport IT services, Umrah/Hajj, property, dredging contractors, business consultants, boat rental, plantations, and agriculture.
4848 Group was first founded on August 4, 1959 by Irawan Sarpingi. Starting with taxi services in the city and expedition services and this operator became the forerunner of taxi companies in Indonesia.
Dadan is friends with, among others, Prof. Alex Lara, a US citizen who has been a leader in international companies such as JP Morgan and later became a professor at the University of Houston, Texas. Besides that, Dadan is also friends with DR Jacob Chacko from Clayton University.
With the network owned by his friends, Dadan was invited to lecture in front of master's, doctoral students and lecturers at various foreign universities.
