IN the narrow alleys in Tanah Abang Market the sight of wholesale buyers from various African countries is not a strange sight. The majority speak Indonesian fluently. When the economy was hit by crisis in 1998, their numbers multiplied.

"The rupiah's plummet against the US dollar at that time drove up foreign buyers' buying power," said Hasan Basri, a trader at Tanah Abang Market. That was the golden era for Tanah Abang trader