Following the closing of the monthlong Jakarta Fair, Governor Fauzi Bowo said Monday he wanted organizing company PT Jakarta International Expo (JIE) to share its profits with the city administration.

"We'll ask the company to pay out dividends to the administration as it made huge profits from the Jakarta Fair using the city's assets," he said at City Hall.

"Moreover, the administration has a commissioner and a director at the company. I believe we deserve part of the profits."

In response, company official Budi Santoso said any decision to pay out dividends required the approval of shareholders.

"We have appointed a team to calculate our actual profits. A shareholders meeting will decide whether we'll pay out a dividend or keep it for investing," Budi said.

"We'll definitely set aside a dividend for the administration if the shareholders meeting gives its approval," he said, adding the company had yet to schedule the meeting.

He said the company did not pay out dividends from its profits at last year's Jakarta Fair, instead investing the money to improve the infrastructure and facilities at the fairground.

The company officially closed the country's largest and longest exhibition early Monday morning with a 10-minute fireworks display, the administration's official news website, beritajakarta.com, reported.

The closing ceremony was attended by the governor, Jakarta Secretary Muhayat and Central Jakarta Mayor Sylviana Murni.

During the ceremony, the committee said that according to provisional calculations, a record Rp 2.1 trillion (US$228 million) in transactions was booked by 2,600 taking part in the fair, up from Rp 1.7 trillion last year.

This would exceed the company's pre-fair target of Rp 2 trillion.

Held in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, the fair attracted more than 4.5 million visitors, an increase from 3 million recorded last year.

Jakarta International Expo had been projecting just 2.5 million visitors this year, with a projected peak of 150,000 visitors a day over the third and fourth weekends, the company's marketing director, Ralph Scheunemann, said.

Sales at the fair have increased significantly since 2004, when Rp 450 billion in transactions was booked, he said.

Transactions reached Rp 477 billion in 2005 and Rp 560 billion in 2006.

The Jakarta Fair, established in 1967, is organized annually to commemorate the capital's anniversary, which falls on June 22.